Adventures of The Omni-Triplets!
by DoubleWrong
Summary: Todd, Matheo, and Kate Harrison are pretty average kids, until a field trip goes wrong, and now, they're entrusted with the Omnitrixes, 3 devices that allow them to Harness Alien DNA! (I've merged the "Origins" and Rebooted" together, so it's just one now) OC. (1K VIEWS, OMG!)
1. O1: The Infiltration!

Todd Harrison was probably about as far from 'excited' as possible. He was lying upside down on his medium-sized black sofa, staring at his phone, which had lost power a while ago, with a phone case that was a mix of dark blue, and baby blue. The living room that was all but full of life. His twin sister, Kate, was out on the town with her friends, and his

OTHER twin brother, Matheo, was in his room, doing who-knows-what... See, that's the thing, Todd's Twin brother was actually... A mad SCIENTIST... or an Inventor... It kind of changes, depending on the situation, though that didn't really seem like it left a ton of time for Matheo's social life to develop. Todd, on the other hand, used to have friends, Casey, and Brandon, that was, until about a week ago, when they decided they "didn't have time for him anymore." So yeah, now Todd had 0 friends.

The whole house felt empty, now. Despite being 13, he was feeling like his whole life had hit a dead end, and that's not mentioning his parents, who seemed to show up around once a year. The only thing that seemed to generally like him was HIS dog (Yes, HIS, not Kate's, despite what she says.), Fluffy, who was laying curled up against his side. Todd dragged himself off the couch, and upstairs. School WAS starting in only an hour, after all, and he couldn't go in his pajamas.

()

Todd took out a medium blue sweatshirt from his closet, and threw it on, along with some blue jeans, and finally, a red shirt, over the blue hoodie, with two black, vertical lines running over it, and a horizontal blue lightning bolt running through THOSE lines, with black bars outlining the sleeves of his T-shirt. Todd himself had ruffled hair, brown eyes, and a few freckles on both of his cheeks. Fluffy followed him into his room and looked at him, Fluffy himself was a Terrier Breed, with white-yellow fur, and a purple collar. As Todd exited the room, he saw Matheo walking out of the room opposite of him.

Matheo Scowled at Todd, "Well, well, look who finally fell out of bed. Ready to fail again?"

Todd rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Matheo, I've been up this whole time, you know."

Matheo had the same face as time, except with a slightly more sinister-looking twist. He wore a black T-shirt, with a yellow 'A', which stretched down, and wrapped around his waist, with grey shorts, and black sweatpants under those shorts, and his hair was less aimless, and was swished to the side. Matheo tried to shove Todd, but Todd moved, causing Matheo to barrel into the banister that ended the staircase.

"OW!" Matheo yelled.

Todd smirked. "Anyway, the field trip's today, y'know. Apparently, they're takin' us to a government base, that doubles as a museum, and maybe even a gift sh-!"

"Todd." Matheo cut him off. "Nobody gives a crap."

"Uh... Okay. Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed," Todd said, confused, both him and Fluffy following Matheo down the stairs. "I just thought since it's a government

base, you'd get a kick out of it, y'know, considering your... enthusiasm."

Matheo grumbled something under his breath, but conceded. "Hopefully we'll see Kate there. She's not in our class, but I always have smart conversations with HER."

Todd grinned. He was finally making some progress with his brother!

"So... Trip partners?" Todd asked.

"... Fine." Matheo sighed.

()

The two of them went off to school, which looked about how most schools do, with the exception of the science department, which shot up out of the side of the school, looking like something straight out of the future. It was always Matheo's favorite place, thanks to it's practically infinite budget, and how many other geeky kids were teeming there.

"Those nerds paid for your precious field trip, Todd." Matheo smirked.

Todd nodded, but his head was somewhere else. He was looking over at the bus stop, and saw Kate, His Twin Sister. She wore a grey T-shirt, with two white triangles at the top and bottom, forming an almost hourglass symbol. She wore white highwater pants, and her hair was curled around her face, which bore a resemblance to Todd and Matheo's faces, but

more feminine, and she was also wearing elbow covers. Kate was standing at the bus stop, talking to her best friend, Amy Lockehart, whom Todd had always had a slight crush on... Okay, MAJOR crush, but Kate made it pretty clear the Amy already had a boyfriend, and that she would kill Todd if he dared ask such a question around Amy.

"He-e-ello...?" Matheo said, waving his hand in Todd's face. "The buses are leaving, NOW. It might not be formal to get into the buses straight away, but I'm not about to ditch a field trip, and RUIN my perfect record, you know!"

"Right, right." Todd agreed. "Let's go."

The two brothers sat next to each other, and Todd looked back at Amy and Kate, who were sitting a few rows behind them.

"What's your deal?" Matheo asked.

"Uh, nothing." Todd said. "I was just wondering... Why does Kate never, like, hang out with us anymore?"

"Uh, she grew up... And in fairness, I wouldn't want to hang out with us if I was her. We're kind of dorks. I mean, I'm 'booksmart,' you know, and you... have no friends."

Todd's head swiveled towards Matheo, panicked. "How'd you-?! ... Actually, you know what? I don't wanna know."

"Good choice." Matheo smirked.

The bus began moving, and the twins waited in silence. They'd been all over the city at this point, so there wasn't too much new to see. Todd stared out the window, anyway, while Matheo fiddled with another one of his inventions, something that looked like a slice of cake, with a clock inside, or something like that. Todd never paid too much attention to Matheo during the boring parts of his inventing. Eventually, the bus stopped at a large, grey, rectangular building, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, in the middle of the desert on the outskirts of the city.

"This is it?!" A girl yelled from the row next to Todd. "We're going to a BRICK?!"

Matheo chuckled to himself. "Insolent fool. The inside is always the interesting part..." He looked at Todd, who was staring at him. "... What?"

The bus opened it's doors, and the kids poured out, Todd walked over to where the teachers were, before he ducked behind a small wall, seeing Matheo next to him. "Great minds must think alike, huh?" Todd grinned.

Matheo sighed. "I guess you're in the mood to try and get a free souvenir too, huh, Todd?"

"I just wanna see the government part of this place... You've got the gadgets?"

"... It's not ideal. I couldn't fit too much in my backpack. Only two hologram disks, and a goo shooter."

"WHAT?!" Todd practically shouted. "No invisibility cloak, no memory eraser?! What if we're SEEN?!"

"Then don't get seen, doofus. You can still back out if you want."

"Oh, I'm not backing out, I just would appreciate a backup plan."

()

The twins snuck around the building, carefully avoiding the class, and snaking their way around the complex, trying to find an alternate entrance, but the only door they found was locked tight. Todd and Matheo both tried to lift it, but there was no luck. Matheo then took out his goo shooter, and set the chemical mixture to 'acidic,' and blasted it at the door, melting a giant hole in it.

"Don't touch the edges." Matheo warned, as he carefully wormed his way through, before Todd dived through, and rolled on the ground, with hardly a scuff. "Or, you can be extra. That works, I guess."

The twins looked around the room, there were cardboard boxes, stacked up to the ceiling, and they were arranged in a labyrinth pattern, almost. Todd and Matheo both slid through the maze, without making a sound, and eventually came to a door, which was locked. Todd snatched Matheo's goo shooter, aimed it at the door, and pulled the trigger, before Matheo's eyes widened. He grabbed the gun, and slid it at the base of the door, as it was now making a beeping sound. He and Todd both jumped back, as the shooter exploded, blowing a hole in the door, and setting off at least 3 different alarms.

"What was that?!" Todd yelled, confused, and running through the hole.

"The shooter was out of ammo, so when you pulled the trigger again, you activated the self-destruct!" Matheo shouted back.

"Why the heck would you program THAT in?!" Todd cried, ducking behind more boxes, as footsteps intensified.

"So, it wouldn't be useless when I ran outta ammo, DUH."

"Shh, shh, guards!"

As Todd warned, two men in black suits came sprinting around the corner, holding pistols, and pointing them in the dimly-lit room. "Any sign of the culprit?" One of them asked.

"Nope. Look around. They can't have gone too far."

Matheo and Todd crawled into the boxes that were making up their hiding place, and closed the lid, just as one of the agents looked over the wall, and surveyed the space behind it. His face contorted with suspicion, and he began to open the boxes the twins were hiding in, when suddenly...

"James, get over here, there's an acidic hole on the storage door!"

James let go of the box cover, and ran over to his partner, and, while they were distracted, Todd and Matheo crawled out of the boxes, and snuck out of the room, while hearing the guards theorizing about the possibility that one of the test subjects may have escaped. Todd and Matheo both sprinted down the hallway, before they saw shadows of the guards drawing near to them.

Matheo noticed a door that was labeled "Danger," And figured nobody would be stupid enough to go in there, so nobody would look there. The door was locked behind a retina scan, so he took out a holographic disk, set it to look like a guard, and made the hologram to activate the door.

Todd was oblivious to all of this, and snatched a small pipe that had fallen from the roof, and held it in front of him, and backed towards Matheo, before Matheo grabbed him by the collar, and yanked into the room. As the guards walked by, Todd and Matheo were now in the danger room, which was completely dark. Matheo used his other hologram disk as a light source, and let out an audible gasp. Todd turned around, and saw a glass case, with two devices in it, one resembling a square watch, with a black screen in the middle, and two blue lines that moved towards each other, and back again, and the other far thicker, with four white and red tubes that wrapped around it, and a red and black hourglass symbol in the middle, with a button beneath it.

"What... is this place? ... and are those, like, high-tech watches?" Todd asked, dumbfounded. "Why would anybody dedicate an entire room to watches? ... And only 2 of them, for that matter?"

"Maybe this has something to do with it?" Matheo asked, pointing the disk at a sign that read 'THIS ROOM CONTAINS OBJECTS THAT ORIGINATED FROM A VORTEX IN THIS EXACT LOCATION. ALL STAFF MUST REFRAIN FROM PHYSICAL CONTACT'

Todd looked at the watches, and noticed two labels, the blue watch was labeled 'Splici', and the red watch was labeled 'Opti.'

Todd shook his head. "I know I'm gonna regret this, but if we're gonna get out of here, we should probably try these. I mean, what else are we gonna do?"

Matheo nodded. "Let's just... There!" He put the pointed side of the holo-disk into the bottom of the glass, and managed to remove the case noiselessly, at the cost of the disk.

Todd reached for the blue watch, while Matheo reached for the other one, and to their surprise, the watches suddenly jumped onto their arms, causing them to yelp in surprise.

"What the?!" Todd cried, as he began trying to use the railing to pry off the watch, but he had no luck, it even kind of hurt him to try and remove it, while Matheo simply stared at his, entranced. "Fascinating." He said, "A watch that is capable of malforming, and attracting itself to it's user... and all in such a compact form..."

Todd suddenly looked back at his watch, and wondered if this watch would be such a problem. He began poking at it, trying to find some way to 'activate' it... Whatever that would mean. Todd eventually realized that the black and blue part of his watch was glossy, like the screen on a phone. He tried swiping at it, and a holographic blue ring popped up, with several faces on it, faces that definitely didn't look human. After about 2 seconds, the face became a hologram, revealing a monkey-like creature, with four extra arms, and 2 more seconds after that, the black part of the watch slid back, revealing a circular symbol, that resembled the one on Matheo's watch, with a silver rim around it.

The symbol rose up, attached to a core-like object, which began beeping. Todd stared at the symbol, confused. Matheo looked at Todd, and pressed the button on his watch, causing his core to pop up as well, revealing a hologram of a hulking humanoid beast, with 4 arms, and his core began beeping as well. The twins looked at each other, before Todd broke the silence.

"Well, I don't really like the beeping, so I guess I'll just press this thing back down-!?"

()

As soon as Todd pressed the core down, there was a flash of blue light, and in an instant, blue fur covered veins spring up from his watch, as they raced up his body, and reached his eyes, which both split into two. A black and blue tail sprung out of his lower body, while his legs shot up into his abdomen, and his arms split into 8 different arms, and the hourglass symbol appeared on his left arm. The light faded. It felt like only a second, but after that light faded, he was completely different. He started yelling in a higher pitched voice, and quite literally ran up the wall, ceiling, down the other wall, and raced laps vertically like this for a bit.

()

Matheo saw this, and grinned from ear-to-ear. "Oh, My turn." He raised his right hand in the air, and slammed it down on the core, as red light shot out from the watch.

()

Crimson-tinted veins shot up from Matheo's watch, racing up to his eye, turning it bright yellow, and pupil-less. Two extra arms shot out from Matheo's shirt, as the 'A' on it became a yellow line that ran up his shirt. Matheo's skin was now deep red, and the line from his shirt became black, and ran vertically along his head. Matheo's arms were now extremely muscular, and he began flexing.

()

"Hey..." Todd suddenly said. "Wait a sec... I actually feel... fine, okay, great, LIKE A MILLION BUCKS!" Todd yelled, suddenly ecstatic. "I mean look at me, I'm Spider-man, and I can even see in the dark!"

Todd put two paws out, and stuck out a few fingers, but now webs appeared, and he fell flat on his face.

Matheo picked Todd up with only his pinky finger, and his thumb. "This is beyond cool. I mean, I was expecting maybe a badge, or something, but shapeshifting watches, I mean, come on!"

Todd's four eyes suddenly widened. "Uh... Yeah, How, exactly do we turn back into humans?"

Matheo stuttered. "Uh, still working on that. In the meantime, I know how we're getting out of here."

The door was suddenly punched open, and several agents began clearing into the room, and Todd grabbed Matheo, and scurried onto the roof, desperately trying to avoid them.

"Sir!" One of the agents shouted. "The Splicatrix and Optitrix have been taken!"

"Optritrix? Splicatrix?" Matheo asked. "Is that what these watches are called?"

The guards looked up, and began shooting at the ceiling, causing Todd to drop Matheo, and scurry away from the rain of bullets. Matheo used the gravity to his advantage, and delivered a devastating ground pound, knocking away almost all of the guards, while Todd ran down, and accidentally shot one of the guards with his tail. The guard was suddenly caught in a rather large spider-web. Todd grinned, and quickly tied several guards together with his webbing, and threw the combo into the other guards, clearing them out just long enough for Todd to escape, while Matheo tore the door off of it's hinges, and used that to smack most of the guards out of the way, and began clearing after Todd, before they were stopped by one last guard, with what appeared to be a flashlight.

"So, you took our property, huh guys?" He smirked. "Well, they haven't exactly bonded to your DNA, yet, so they can be removed rather easily, you know."

Todd curled his tail upwards, and shot several webs the guard, before he used his flashlight to bring forth a plasma beam, incinerating the webbing, and blasting Matheo back a few feet, before he came barreling back through the smoke, and backhanded-slapped the guard into the wall, before the guard angled himself at just the right trajectory that he jumped off the wall, and onto the ceiling, and punched Matheo in the face, only for the punch to do nothing, and Matheo grabbed the guard, threw him to the side, and was webbed up by Todd, and the two continued their escape.

"Something tells me they don't know how to work these things." Todd joked.

They were stopped by the full squadron of agents, who were blocking the door, and began opening fire on the twins, but Todd grabbed Matheo, and flung him towards the massive overhead window.

Todd jumped after him, and covered his face. Matheo wound up a punch, and shattered the window, and the twins landed outside, and hid behind the bus.

"That oughta keep them off our backs, for now." Todd sighed.

"Yeah, but how long until they come out and see 2 aliens hiding behind the bus?! We're not exactly discreet."

Suddenly, they both heard a beeping sound, and a flash of yellow light shown from both of their watches, and they were finally back to normal. They climbed back into the bus through the window and tried to pretend that there weren't a bunch of guards looking for them.

()

"I can't believe that just happened." Todd said, as the last kids got back into the bus, and it began to return home.

"These... uh, let's see... Since yours splices, and mine optimizes, the plural should be... 'Omni,' cuz they can do both."

"Then..." Todd replied. "These Omnitrix's are AWESOME."

"Let's just be glad they actually bought the whole 'we got them at the gift store' story."

"Yeah. So, 'Splicatrix' huh? I wonder what the 'splice' part means..."

"Let's not find out on the bus, please…"


	2. O2: Not-So-Handy-Man!

Matheo Harrison would hardly call himself ecstatic about the most recent development in his life. He and his brother, Todd Harrison had just found two 'Omnitrixes' fused to both of their left wrists, devices that they'd recently found in a government base earlier that week. While Todd was out probably using his Splicatrix' to play around, like the idiot he often was, Matheo was fuming at the fact that device he hadn't created, something he barely understood, was stuck to HIS arm. Only a primitive ape would call that fair.

So, like any rational person, Matheo was bent over his workshop, a large metal table at the end of the house's attic, covered with blueprints, microscopes, work-in-progress inventions, snacks, and a lamp. His latest addition to the table was a small slab, with four different metallic arms, which were attached to his 'Optitrix,' while the slab itself was connected by a cable to a small table Matheo was currently using to calibrate the machine, and above it was a large cone, pointed at his arm.

"Alright, that should get the job done." Matheo muttered, unaware of the footsteps behind him.

"What are you up to now, kid?" A gruff voice appeared from behind him.

Matheo turned around in his chair, but not completely, due to his left arm being strapped to the table. "What the-?! … Wait a sec, Legladon…?" He asked, confused.

"Yup." The man stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to be around 20, with a tan trench-coat, a sideways baseball cap, and a large scar, running across his forehead. "Been a while, huh Matt?"

"I keep telling you." Matheo sighed. "It's Matheo, or Mo, if you're lazy."

"So… What are you up to now? What's with the… uh… Skylight?"

"It's powered by the sun, nitwit. If I'm gonna hack into this Optitrix, I'm gonna need power."

" 'Op-tee-trick?' What's that?"

Matheo turned back to his table, and began the start-up process. "Oh, just a souvenir I found during a field trip."

Legladon nodded. "Field trip, huh? Where'd ya' go?"

"Some museum… Look, could you just buzz off? I don't need anybody here knowing I'm associated with you, okay?"

"Fine, I'll leave… I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing, hacking something like that."

Matheo paused. " 'Something Like That?' What do you-?" He turned around, but Legladon had vanished.

Matheo's face began to twist a bit, but it returned to normal. After all, he just wanted to find some way to remove it, or control it better, or who knows what, it didn't matter. He DID know that Legladon was being cryptic, and that he knew more than he was letting on… Or did he? Matheo could never really tell with Legladon, after all. Matheo turned back to the tablet for the final time, and thumbed the activation prompt, causing the machine to whir to light, and a dark beam to shoot down from it, onto his Optitrix.

Matheo looked away, for particles were flying dangerously close to his face, before there was a small combustion on the surface of his workbench… Then another… Then another, and the next thing he knew, his entire table was on fire, and it was racing towards him, about as quickly as fire can, across metal. Matheo yelped as a spark touched his finger, and he began trying to tear his arm away, but the operation wasn't even close to being finished. He wasn't going anywhere.

Suddenly, the door was forced open, and Todd ran into the room, his Splicatrix beeping like crazy, and a confused expression on his face.

"Todd?!" Matheo yelled, still trying to get away. "What are you-?!"

"No time!" Todd began running towards Matheo, and activated his Splicatrix, before slamming the core down.

()

The Splicatrix sank into Todd's skin, as there was a large flash of blue light, before molten rocks began to cover his body, burning his clothes and hair off. His toes fused together, into a hook light shape, and becoming pure magma, the same going for his hands, while his head became engulfed in fire, forming a mask of rocks, with the Omnitrix symbol appearing on his chest.

()

"HEATBLAST!" He yelled as the blue light faded, and still running towards Matheo.

Matheo started shouting, "TODD, YOU IDIOT! What do you even plan to do, Roast me MORE?!"

HeatBlast stopped next to Matheo, and put both of his hands up, before absorbing the fire from the workbench, causing Matheo to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Oh…" He said. "So that was your plan."

HeatBlast shrugged. "Uh… Duh. Of course the fire guy an absorb fire. That just makes sense."

Matheo stared at him. "Please… Tell me you knew that."

"Uh…" HeatBlast looked around for something to change the subject to. "Hey, what's up with that machine? Did it start the fire?"

"No, my crippling nicotine addiction did." Matheo said sarcastically.

"So, why did it start the fire, then? … Did it… Overheat?" HeatBlast asked, slyly.

"Ha, ha." Matheo looked at the restraints. "Hey, think you could do me a favor, and get me out of these before it starts sparkin' again?"

"You got it, bro." HeatBlast said, putting his index finger onto the slab, causing it to superheat, and melt quickly.

Matheo yanked his hand out as soon as possible, before sighing in relief. "Thanks, I guess… Hey, wait, what was up with the whole 'HeatBlast' thing?"

"It's what I named the guy." HeatBlast said, shrugging.

"Why on earth would you name your transformations? That's just a waste of time. The only names they need, are 'fire-guy,' 'strong-guy,' 'smart-guy,' I mean, why put the time in on it?"

"Well, what if you've got 2 fire guys?"

"fire-guy-one, and fire-guy-two."

"Well, you don't tell me what to do. You can borrow my names, if you want, though." HeatBlast offered.

"Get bent." Matheo said simply, before returning to his workshop. "Ugh. It's ruined. I spent a whole 3 months on this, only for it to get burnt to a-"

He was interrupted by the machine catching fire for a second time, as it began to spread again. "Geez!" Matheo yelled. "The operation never finished!"

"On it!" HeatBlast yelled, running back to the machine.

()

Matheo sat outside the house, staring at his Optitrix, concerned. "Stupid Legladon… Stupid Todd, really. I guess when I started messin' with this, he got some signal… Whatever, Since the operation was interrupted, whatever I get outta this, it'll definitely be temporary…"

Matheo looked around. Then, he pressed the red button under the rim, before it popped up, but instead of the alien selection he was used to, there was a white line, before it made a low-pitched ticking noise. Matheo sighed, before he spun it to a random spot, and forcefully pressed the core down, before a strange, white light emitted from his Optitrix, and engulfed him.

()

Matheo's Optitrix sent veins out of it, before the veins abruptly stopped, leaving his arm malformed, before there was another flash, this one red, splitting Matheo in half. A hand sprung out of his halves, with the Omnitrix symbol on the back of itself, with the 4 eyes on it's knuckles.

()

The light faded in an instant, and Matheo looked at himself, a singular left hand, that seemed to be made up of several different left hands, presumably from his Optitrix's samples, though he didn't know which ones they were.

"What the-?!" Matheo cried, stumbling, falling down the steps on his porch.

He tumbled backwards, directly in front of Nelsie, one of Kate's friends, who yelped immediately at the sight of a disembodied alien hand hitting her ankle.

"AIEE!" She cried, jumping away from it. "It's a hand! It's a HAND!"

"I got it!" Kate said, running forward, kicking it a few feet away.

"Ugh… Thanks, Kate…" Nelsie stammered, before she saw the hand start to stand up, on it's OWN.

"Thank me later!" Kate shouted. "We gotta get outta here!"

As the girls ran away, Matheo snickered to himself. "See ya later, dorks." He said, satisfied.

Matheo decided to take a walk around the neighborhood, since he wasn't really doing much except waiting for his Optitrix to turn him back to human, (And no, he refused to say 'Humanize' to describe this process, no matter what Todd said.), So Matheo took a walk around their block, and almost immediately ran into trouble. There were two kids, who had tied some rope around a poodle's body, and had hung it from a tree branch.

"This is gonna teach Mrs. Canarry a lesson!" One of the kids said, wearing a skull onesie, and a denim jacket, with a buzzcut haircut, as he was reaching for a baseball bat.

"Yeah. She'll never give us anything under a B+ again!" The other said, wearing a blue, torn hoodie, and white shorts.

Matheo sighed. "Seriously? A poodle piñata?"

Matheo crawled over to the kid with the buzzcut, and crawled up his pantleg, and dug his nails into his leg, causing him to shriek, and throw his bat into the other kid's face, knocking him off his feet. Matheo moved down the kid's leg, and grabbed onto his ankle, and twisted himself at just the right angle to flip the kid onto his butt. Matheo crawled out of his pants, and onto his stomach.

"W-w-what the?!" The kid cried, trying to back away, despite the fact Matheo was on his stomach. "What ARE you?!"

"My name is… Uh…" Matheo paused. "Uh… The Handy Hero? … Yeah, that works."

"That name's lame, dude." The kid murmured uncomfortably.

"Look, I embody justice… Uh, without the body. So, you're like… going to jail, dude."

"That's… not how it works man. I'm like, 11."

"Juvie, then, jeez." Matheo shook his head. "Look, you're gonna regret trying to make a punching bag out of this dog. Untie him, now."

"What?! Look, man, we were just…"

"Now!" Matheo commanded.

The teen shoved Matheo off of him, and cut the rope in half, causing the poodle to drop from the tree, and scurrying off down the road.

"Uh…" Matheo said. "I was thinking you guys could… y'know, carry the dog home?"

"Okay, that's it." The kid with the buzzcut said. "HARRY! Whack him!"

"Wha-?" Matheo started, before he was smacked over the 'head' with the bat by the other kid, causing him to blackout.

()

Matheo woke up inside of a glass jar, sealed tight with a lid, that had around 5 air holes in it, with the two kids staring at him, their eyes widened as soon as he woke up. They were in a small room, with yellow, peeling wallpaper, and various pieces of trash littered around the room. One of the kids tapped the jar, causing extremely loud vibrations to assault his ears. He put his fingers up to his 'ears.'

"Jason!" Harry scolded. "What are you doing!?"

"I just wanted to see if he was dead."

"I guess. Well, he's not. He's awake, ain't he?"

"Yeah, the mutant freak of a hand is awake, whoop-de-doo."

"HEY!" Matheo yelled, still half-asleep, and with a splitting headache. "I can hear you, y'know!"

"Nobody cares." Jason shot back.

He flicked the jar, causing it to tip over. Harry picked the jar up, and set it straight. He crouched down, and stared intently at Matheo.

"Listen here, freak" Harry growled. "You cost us years of easy living by screwing up our ransom. Now, we're gonna dissect you. You are gonna pay."

"You kids are screwed up, y'know!"

"Whatever. Take a good look at the setup next to you. Whaddya think?"

Matheo looked to his right, and saw a small table, made out of some kind of metal, with tiny rubber band cuffs on it, for all of his fingers, and thumb, with several metal tools around it, including a spring. Matheo looked back to the kids.

"Okay, I get it, you guys are mad, I get it, but come on, Let's save this for science class, huh?"

"You know, he's got a point…" Jason said, thoughtfully. "If we brought this guy in for science, we could get a whole lotta extra credit… We could use that…"

"… No. Way." Harry spat. "This is personal."

He unscrewed the lid, and grabbed Matheo. He slammed Matheo against the table, holding him there while Jason strapped him to it with the bands. And grinned, sadistically.

"And it's gonna be way more fun than some stupid project."

"But before we do that…" Jason said, turning the table around, revealing a hole that Matheo's Omnitrix symbol was sticking out of. "Let's take THIS thing apart."

"Fine." Harry grumbled, and stuck a screwdriver blade into the space between the symbol's border and it's cover, trying to pry it open.

"Wait, guys!" Matheo begged. "We can talk about this, right!?"

"You didn't put tape over his mouth?" Jason asked.

"We were supposed to do that? I'll do it when we dissect him, so he doesn't scream… Too loud."

"Guys, Please!" Matheo cried.

Suddenly, Matheo's Symbol flashed with white light, blasting the kids and their tools back, and began to emit a voice:

"Code damage purged. Code damage repaired." The Symbol said, in a robotic voice. "Optitrix has been restored. Transforming user to default state, now."

There was a blast of red light, before Matheo finally found himself standing in front of the kids, looking at his hands.

"Alright, finally! Todd was totally lying about the whole '10 minutes' thing, that was like, 3 hou-!" Matheo stopped and looked at the kids, who were staring at him.

"Oh… Yeah, I guess you guys can't know about this… Huh. Oh, wait! I have the perfect thing for this!"

Matheo reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small metallic wand, which glowed green, turned it on, and pointed it at the kids. "Look at the light, m'kay?"

()

Matheo was standing in the attic, and staring at the device he used to hack the Optitrix, before he threw a white cloth over it, and stuck a note on it, which read: "Needs Work. LOTS of Work," and sighed. It was the first time in his entire life one of his inventions had failed him, especially so badly.

"Welp, maybe I should try and start from scratch…"

As he sat down on the couch, and stared at the machine, now defunct. Then, he looked at his Optitrix, and smirked. "Or… Maybe there's no real reason to try and hack this thing… For now."

Matheo stood up, and walked over to his door, and opened it to see an angry Kate, staring at him.

"Uh.. Hi?" Matheo asked, confused.

"Lemme see your watch." Kate said, simply.

"Huh?"

"Now."

Matheo held out his arm to Kate, who stared at his Optitrix, before exclaiming 'A-Ha!' and cracking her knuckles.

"What? What's going on?"

"That hand thing that attacked Nelsie! It was you!"

"What!? I'm not the Handy Hero!" Suddenly, Matheo covered his mouth, for he'd never told anyone except those two kids about his name. "Uh-oh." He gulped.

" 'Handy Hero,' huh? I'll show you 'handy!' " Kate shouted, as Matheo ducked under her, and ran out of the house as Kate chased him.

"Kate, really, it wasn't me!" Matheo cried, sprinting out of the house.

"Oh, yeah?! Quit running, then!"


	3. O3: The Dog-Napping Caper!

Kate Harrison was always there for her friends. She had garnered a reputation among her friend group, for being 'super-reliable.' Sure, none of them ever paid her back, but it's not like she could just dump them over the slightest ignored favor. After all, if she dumped all of her friends, she could become like her brothers, social outcasts in EVERY sense of the word.

So that's why, when Kate's close friend Margot came to her with a poster for her missing Corgi, Buddy, Kate jumped at the opportunity to help her find him.

"Of course I'll help!" Kate replied, excitedly. "Where'd you last see the lil' guy?"

"Oh, thank you!" Margot said, relieved. "Nobody in my family wanted to help, y'know. Oh, uh, I last saw him last night. He didn't come back when we put him out, and I found a hole in our fence, so he must have run through there."

"Alright, well, let's check that hole out then…" Kate thought for a second. "Do you think he coulda chewed through the fence, maybe?"

"No… You'll understand when you see it. Uh, could we get your parents, or brothers to help us out?"

"Not a chance." Kate replied. "My parents are outta the picture these days. Only seen them a couple of times. They keep saying stuff about them being spies, but I'd appreciate… Y'know, a serious response about why my own parents jus-"

"Yeah, okay." Margot interrupted. "Your bros? What about them?"

"... Okay, well, they've apparently got better things to do. Matheo said they were investigating a man who was apparently… Kidnapping… Dogs…" Kate's voice trailed off. "Oh, no."

"Kidnapping DOGS?!" Margot shouted, delirious. "Why didn't you say that earlier?!"

"I forgot! Look, we gotta go back to my house, quick!" Kate said, turning around, and sprinting back to her house.

()

Kate and Margot opened the door, and ran upstairs. Kate opened the attic door, pulled the ladder down, and crawled up into the attic, with Margot in tow. As soon as Margot laid her eyes on the high-tech machinery covering the room, her jaw hit the floor.

"What IS this place?!" She asked in amazement, skipping over to a wind-up pair of dentures with C4 embedded in the teeth.

"My attic." Kate sighed, looking through Matheo's blueprints. "It's where my dopey brothers hang out, and do experiments, and invent… Stuff, I guess."

"This is AMAZING!" Margot cried, as she threw open the closet door to reveal a jetpack, that shot out a large laser onto the ground to propel the user into the air. "Where do they get the funds to do this stuff?!"

"Don't know, don't care." Kate grumbled, and pulled out a whiteboard with a map of the neighborhood scribbled on it. "Hey, I think I found what we're looking for!"

"Woah." Margot squinted at the map. " 'Dr. Aloysius Animo Dog Chart.' "

"Hey, look!" Kate pointed at a scruffy-looking picture of a dog. "That must be your Corgi! … It says he was last seen at Almond Lane."

"Sweet!" Margot said. "That's where we gotta go… But first, do you think your bros would mind if we took a couple of gadgets for… self-defense purposes?"

"Oh, believe me, they won't know." Kate grinned.

()

Kate strapped metal guards to her arms, with mounted laser cannons. She also threw on holographic armor, as well. (How that works, she didn't know.) Margot refused to put on anything, instead opting to cover her entire right arm with a sleeve attached to a mini satellite and tablet, which she would use to find Buddy.

"I'm serious." Kate insisted. "This Aloysius guy sounds like he should be trouble. At least take… I dunno, a laser gun, or something?"

"Nope." Margot shook her head. "You'll do the fighting, I'll do the locating."

"That's not a good idea, sister. Just take SOMETHING."

"Not happening. We're just gonna take my dog back. What's the worst that could happen?"

Kate was well aware of the fact that her brothers, Matheo and Todd Harrison, were in possession of two alien devices known as the 'Omnitrixes,' which allowed them to transform into, like, a billion different aliens. If THOSE two were going after this guy, then this Aloysius guy is defiantly bad news. If Kate was lucky, they might be the only defense she needed, but she wasn't stupid enough to take that bet.

"Fine. I'll take an extra gun, just in case." Kate grumbled, reaching for a small clear pistol.

"OK." Margot replied. "Soo… Are we gonna go… Like, today?"

"Yeah, alright."

()

The two girls ran out into the neighborhood, being careful to watch their backs, and looking out for any possible threats… At least, Kate was. Margot didn't know anything about the Omnitrixes, so she didn't know why Kate kept jumping behind trashcans, and pointing her cannons at… Nothing. She had no clue why Kate was being so paranoid, but since Kate had read pretty much every superhero comic she could get her hands on, she knew that revealing secret identities never, EVER ends well.

"Margot, be careful!" Kate commanded. "We have no idea what could be around the next corner!"

"Kate, please." Margot sighed. "Don't make a joke out of Buddy's disappearance. He could be hurt… Really badly. My lil' cinnamon bun… Hurt."

"What? No, I'm not making a joke, Margot." Kate hesitated. "Look, I know you don't get what's going on here, but Buddy is in real trouble. All those dogs on that map are in trouble, if they're still alive, which, I truly hope they are."

"Buddy's… In danger?" Margot asked, stressed. "No… Please, No…"

"I know, but I-" Kate began.

"BUDDY!" Margot cried, interrupting Kate.

"Huh?" Kate asked, as Margot ran past her, got down on her knees, and hugged a small Corgi with butter-cover fur, at the edge of the sidewalk.

Kate smiled a little. She was wrong. And she was so happy to be wrong. If she was being honest, she wasn't really in the mood to fight a giant monster, or a mad scientist, or a bunch of-

"Huh…?" Margot asked. "Buddy? What's… What's going on? Are you okay?"

Buddy began whining… Really loudly. Kate ran over, and pulled her away from Buddy, who was now howling in pain, and curled up. Buddy grew 3 times his size, and his teeth grew as well, some even cutting into his lips. 2 giant, muscular arms thrust out of his back, resembling the arms of gorilla arms, but with blonde fur. Buddy's tail shrunk back into his hips, and so did his snout.

"B-b-b-buddy…?" Margot stammered, frightened.

"Here!" Kate said, slapping the extra pistol into Margot's Hands. "Told ya' you'd need this!"

"What?! No way, I will not hurt Buddy! No way!" Margot threw the gun onto the ground before smashing it to bits with her foot.

"Are you serious? What-" She gasped, before tackling Margot to the ground. "Get down!"

The mutated Buddy jumped over them, nearly scratching Margot, and landing behind them. Kate turned around quickly, activated her cannons, and fired several rounds at the creature. The blasts exploded on the creature in the back, causing it to howl out in pain.

"Stop, STOP!" Margot jumped in front of Kate's aim. "You're hurting him!"

"It's him or you, girl!"

"You'll have to go through me first."

The girls stared at each other for a second, before Kate sighed. She deactivated her cannons, and looked at Margot hopelessly. Before her eyes widened, as the creature had appeared behind them delivering a backhanded slap that sent them barreling into the fence, knocking Margot unconscious, and paralyzing Kate with the pain.

"…Ow…" Kate murmured, as the creature grabbed both of the girls, and flung them over it's shoulder, and carried them down the road. "Let… Go… of… of…"

Kate couldn't talk anymore. She continued to try and struggle, or talk, or SOMETHING, but she couldn't move, period. The creature continued on, arriving outside of the city, on the side of the road, and tore a hole in the barbed-wire, chain-link fence. There was a large, rectangular, grey building. The creature stood in front of the doors for a few seconds, before winding up, and breaking the blast doors down, and lumbering through the chrome, steel halls.

()

Kate's eyes widened a little. This was the museum that she had gone to during her field trip, and apparently where her brothers had found those Omnitrixes… Man, what she wouldn't give for one of those right now. The mutated Buddy broke open a door labeled 'Staff only,' and lumbered down the hallway, before stopping at a door labeled 'Dr. Animo.'

"Animo…" Kate whispered. "So he's really behind this, huh?"

The creature knocked politely on the door, before tearing it off it's hinges, and flinging the door down the hall, and tossing Kate and Margot into the office, and lumbering in, then sitting down on the bench in the corner. Animo's office itself was practically furniture-less, except for the bench, a desk, 2 chairs, and a pedestal, with a plaque, engraved with the words: "Where MY awards SHOULD go."

The chair behind the desk swiveled around, and Kate found herself staring at a balding man, with long, white hair. He was wearing a lab-coat, that was permanently stained dark-green, with a black undershirt, and deep yellow cargo pants, with black combat boots.

"Well, well." He said, with a maniacal grin. "And just who are you girls?"

"Kate. Kate Harrison. And this here, is my friend Margot."

"Wait a tick." Animo said, excited. "HARRISON?... As in, sister of those 2 kids?"

"U-uh…" Kate didn't know how to respond. "What 2 kids?

Animo smirked, and pressed a button on his desk. Suddenly, a panel turned around, to reveal Todd and Matheo, both strapped to the wall, with a giant, metal bar, and both unconscious. Kate tried to stand up, but the creature grabbed her shoulders, forcing her back down to the ground, while growling at her.

"Oh-Ho. I'll take that as a 'yes.' " Animo said, grinning like an idiot, now. "This is interesting. 2 little boys with superpowers, surely you have some too, yes?"

"Uh, no, actually." Kate shrugged.

"Oh, and you expect me to believe that? I know triplets, twins, quadruplets, whatever! They stick together through everything! There's no way you just, DIDN'T show up to such an important, life-changing event!"

Kate suddenly felt a pang of grief in her heart. She HAD been brushing off her brothers, acting like they were just a couple of lamebrains, when in reality, they WERE her family. And now, they were going to be closer to each other, than ever, and she would eventually be forced out of… Well, the only family she had left. And all because she wanted to ignore her own brothers. Sure they were lame, but that… What she'd been trying to do… It had been even lamer.

"Yeah." Kate said, quietly. "That's… That's exactly what happened, actually." She hung her head.

"…Really?" Animo asked, intrigued. "Well, then. Let's fix that, shall we?"

"Wait, what?" Kate asked, looking up.

"That's right, darling." Animo revealed a tranquilizer. "I've acquired quite a bit of… 'Data,' If you will, from those devices your brothers have. You're going to be my first test subject, Kate."

"No way!" Kate reached her leg up, kicking Animo in the chin, and jumping up.

She ran towards the door, only to be blocked by a very, very angry Buddy. Kate activated her cannons, and shot his shoulders dozens of times, creating 2 small explosions there. The creature was distracted, allowing Kate to slip behind it, and start unlocking the door, before Kate felt a penetration in the side of her neck. Everything began to be blur, and the last thing she saw was Animo, who stood over her, grinning.

()

Kate woke up, and felt cuffs, around her chest, arms, and legs. She was strapped against a table, which was attached to the wall. There were dozens of computer screens surrounding her, and she felt practically a hundred cables, plugged into the back of her…

"My NECK?!" She exclaimed, moving around from side to side. "How the heck are there cables plugged into my NECK?!"

"Well, that's the interesting part, dearie." Kate heard Animo say. He stepped out of the shadows, holding a clipboard. "It would appear you're not as human as you thought."

"What do you mean…?" Kate asked, slowly starting to feel the world start to slip away, little by little.

"You, my dear, are like a human-sized version of those… Omni… Whatevers."

"Huh…?"

"You store hundreds, of thousands, of Alien DNA samples contained in a chip that is exposed, extruding out of the back of your neck. It would appear that chip is connected to your nervous system, flesh, bones, muscles, organs… Everything."

Kate just shook her head. How is someone supposed to even respond to news like that?

"I assumed that I would need to mutate you by mixing your DNA with some animal's… But, now, I know that there is a safeguard that stops the DNA stored within your body from mutating you. It would be much easier to just…" Animo bent over, and pressed the 'enter' key on his computer. "Delete that little barrier."

Kate suddenly felt a surge of energy within her. She had a vision of a bright white light blinding her, before she suddenly regained her vision, and found herself unable to move. She saw Animo holding what looked like a video-game controller. He moved a controller stick downwards with his thumb, and immediately Kate's head looked downward, without her control. He was mind-controlling her.

"Now this, is interesting. This will prove to be far more useful than those other 2 boys." He thought for a minute. "Hm… If that's the case, I should use my new toy to… Take out the trash."

He forced Kate's arms to mutates into 4, large, muscular arms, busting the bar that was holding her in place, in half. She fell to the ground, before walking over to the wall, and smashing a giant hole in it, and walking back into Animo's office. Animo himself input several button combinations into the controller, and Kate raised her arms up, and prepared to eviscerate the boys.

"Todd, NOW!" Matheo whispered, and Todd nodded his head.

()

Todd pushed the core of his Splicatrix down, causing a massive flash of blue light to emit from the Splicatrix. The Splicatrix itself sent liquid black and blue metal flying over Todd's arm, swallowing Todd's arm whole. His legs shrunk to about one-fourth of their original size, and 3 blue dots, with silver outlines appeared on his chest. There were now three fins on his head, and an hourglass symbol on the back of Todd's head, as he let out a goofy, infectious laugh.

()

"SillyClone!" Todd yelled, and used his new body's shape to slip out of the restraint, with the extra space allowing Matheo to climb out, too.

The flash sent Kate stumbling backwards, before she shook it off. Animo sighed, and began re-inputting the combination, as Matheo jumped in front of him, and cracked his knuckles, then jumped at Animo, who swiftly pushed Matheo to the ground. Meanwhile, SillyClone split himself into 3, who simultaneously began taunting Kate.

"Hey!" The first SillyClone shouted. "Why don'cha pick on someone your own size?!"

"Oooh!" The second jeered. "He just called you short! You gonna take that?!"

"I'm gonna be honest." The third one shrugged. "I dunno what's goin' on."

As Animo finished the combination, Kate sprung to life, and her left 2 arms changed back to normal, before turning back into a strange green, frog-like head, with yellow eyes. She aimed it at the SillyClones.

"Did you know she could do THAT?!" The second SillyClone asked, panicked.

"Dude, we're the same guy!" The third one shouted, backing away. "None of us knew!"

"Guys, quit talking, and BOOK IT!" The first one yelled, and started running away, as the others followed suit.

Kate shouted, and grew two, large, dragon-like wings, and began flying after them. She swooped down, and picked the second SillyClone off the ground, before she flew through the roof with him, smashing a hole in the roof in the process.

"NO!" The first yelled. "Twobie!"

" 'Twobie?' " The third asked, before the second was thrown back down through the hole in the ceiling.

"Ow…" The second SillyClone muttered, rubbing his head. "... We gotta get her down!"

"Agreed… But how?"

The first SillyClone sighed. "Well, it's a good a time as any to try pressing the Splicatrix core again."

"Go for it."

SillyClone took a deep breath, before slapping the back of his head, creating another flash of blue light.

()

Light blue circuitry began to appear, and fill the black parts of SillyClone's clothing, moving the Omnitrix symbol from the back of Todd's head to his chest. SillyClone's two eyes both disappeared, and a bright blue ring appeared wear his eyes should be, and his laugh was now digitalized, like it was coming out of a computer.

()

"Woah!" Todd said, staring at himself. "I musta fused two aliens together!"

"So that's why it's called the 'Splica' – Trix, huh?" The other Todd said.

"What are we gonna call this… thing?"

"How about… SillyCode!"

"Sounds like a plan! ... Speaking of which… What IS the plan?" The third SillyCode asked.

The first looked around, saw the computer in Animo's lab, and smiled.

"Let's give THAT thing a try!" He said, and the other two followed him.

Meanwhile, Matheo was thrown into the wall, and shouted out in pain, as Dr. Animo dusted off his labcoat, before turning back to Kate, who had been flying in circles this whole time, due to the lack of instructions the whole fight, and began trying to get her to fly back through the hole, before he heard a loud, laser-esque noise behind him, and saw Matheo, who had now Transformed into HeatBlast, and who threw a fireball at him. Animo's froze. "Uh-oh."

The three SillyCodes jumped onto the computer, and their body's all malformed, and swallowed the computer, before transforming it into a small mechanical suit, that began to take off, before flying swiftly through the roof, and after Kate, who had resumed flying in circles.

"Okay, Kate! Last chance to turn good!" SillyCode shouted at her, but she ignored him. "Okay… I warned you!"

SillyCode flew at Kate, firing several missiles at her, which exploded, and flung her back down through the building, directly onto Animo, as Matheo grabbed the Controller, and melted it into a puddle. Kate suddenly shook her head, and looked around, before she heard Matheo start whining.

"AW, MAN!" Matheo pouted. "Seriously?!" Kate's got powers, too?!"

"Uh, yeah. Weird, huh?"

SillyCode flew down through the roof, and timed-out, turning back into a human with a bright yellow flash. "And talk about those powers, huh? Pretty cool!"

Animo stood up behind them, and tried to sneak away, before Matheo appeared in front of him, and punted him into the wall, knocking him out.

"All's well that ends well." Todd smirked.

"Uh… Not really." Kate said, and looked around, before she saw a room with a door labeled 'Mutation Room.'

The triplets opened the door, to find the still mutated Buddy, laying cuddled up on the floor, with Margot cuddled up next to him, and every single dog that had gone missing over the past month.

"Okay. Now it ends well."

"Sweet." Matheo smirked. "All we have to do now is just set the dogs free, and de-mutate the big dog!"

Margot suddenly woke up, and stared daggers at Matheo. "Don't even think of touching my baby." Before she went back to sleep.

Matheo sighed. "Fine. Just releasing the dogs."

Kate and Matheo both walked into the room, and began opening the kennel doors, and letting the dogs out, while Todd just stared bewildered at them.

"Guys?" Todd asked, confused. "We're not even gonna give his tail back? Really?"

Matheo and Kate both turned around and looked at him for a second, before they both began laughing hysterically. "Classic Todd!" They said at the same time, and continued laughing.

"I'm going home." Todd said simply, turned around, and left.


	4. O4: Gladiator- Todd!

Todd Harrison called himself a hero. There. He said it. Matheo, and now Kate, would never be caught dead saying something that cheesy, but you don't get that sort of 'beat-around-the-bush' behavior with Todd. No, he didn't want to just ignore his new abilities, or underplay them, or prove he could still fight crime without this one specific gadget, but instead:

"Use a BUNCH OF DIFFERENT GADGETS!" Todd was yelling as quietly as possible, while sitting on top of an apartment rooftop, surveying the streets for crime. "I mean, really, it's the exact same effect, but way lamer! Like, what does Matheo even think he's accomplishing here?!"

Todd sighed, and shook his head. Kate just got her powers 3 days ago, so she wasn't comfortable crime-fighting, especially since she couldn't fully transform to mask her identity, so until she'd finished her makeshift costume. Matheo loudly declared he would rather eat spoonful after spoonful of raw cinnamon until his mouth exploded, before he joined a superhero team with both Todd AND Kate on it. This meant that Todd petty much had to go solo on his patrols into the city.

It was about 1:00 in the morning, too, so that definitely didn't help. The city itself, though was extremely beautiful, especially at night. If he was being honest, the lights were the only thing that was keeping him up this late, even if he had fallen off the building a few times, by now. Todd lived in downtown California, more specifically, Bakersfield, and he knew the place like the back of his hand… At least, the routes relevant to him, not, like, the whole city, or anything.

"Geez, LOUISE!" Todd shouted, scratching at his tired face with his hands, which had lost all feeling a long time ago. "Why is nothing HAPPENING?!"

Todd waited patiently. He waited for a gunshot to go off, or somebody to scream, or a squad of cop cars to go racing past him, but… Nothing. He sighed, and activated his Splicatrix, and settled on an alien that appeared to have giant wings sticking out of his back. Todd smiled, and when the core popped up, he jumped up, and began running towards the edge. Todd eagerly ran off of the building, and slammed the core down, emitting a flash of blue light.

()

Todd's left arm inflated at an extremely rapid rate, tearing off the left sleeve of his blue sweatshirt, only leaving his left T-shirt's sleeve, and the rest of his body followed suit, before his eye turned bright yellow, as well as his shirt fusing with his sweater fusing to his skin, tinting it blue, with his T-Shirts black accents fusing to his skin as well, with red shells on the backs of his hands, legs, and his back. His mouth became extremely wide, and his teeth became pointed. The Omnitrix symbol was on his chest, and Todd now began rolling as a red and black ball, before uncurling, and cracking his knuckles.

()

The light faded, and Todd quickly found himself hurtling rapidly towards the pavement. He let out an unusually deep scream, and hit the pavement, kicking up an extremely large cloud of dust, causing several people to jump out of the way. Onlookers around the crater began murmuring in confusion, and asking the people who were almost crushed if they were okay.

"Oww…" Todd groaned as the dust settled. "I'm gonna feel that in the morning… All 6 stories of it…"

As people saw Todd, now an alien staggering out of the dust, they began yelling, ad throwing things at him, before scampering away. One of them even threw a trashcan at him, which sank into his blubbery body, before being bounced directly back at the girl who threw it, who ducked in the nick of time, before clumsily running away from him.

"Yeah, I guess I probably look like I wanna eat them." Todd paused. "I should probably count how many aliens I actually have at my disposal sometime... Wait, what? Jeez, that fall must have hit me in the head harder than I thought."

Todd noticed that the shells on his back, while not removable, were capable of shifting up and down, as if they could move while the rest of his body could stay stationary.

"My exoskeleton must be some kind of motor, huh?" Todd smiled. "Okay, than I'm gonna call this guy… Roly Poly!" Todd grinned, but the grin faded. "Actually… No. I'll work on that." Todd curled himself into a ball, and took off down the street.

Due to the slits in the shell, and how fast it was rotating, he could practically see through them, and got an extremely good view of where he was going, so as to not total a million cars while trying to survey the city. Unfortunately, most of the drivers weren't used to seeing a giant red ball barreling at them at about 70 miles-per-hour, so most of them swerved out of the way anyways, despite Todd's chivalry.

A certain cab driver yelped as he saw Todd coming at him, and swerved to the left, even though he was going over a bridge. The cab smashed through the barrier of the bridge, and hung over the ocean below, slowly inching closer, and closer to the, (Honestly, WAY too shallow.) ocean below. Todd stopped, and uncurled himself in the street, which caused almost every car on the bridge to stop abruptly, and the drivers to get out.

… ALMOST every car. About 10 extra cars swerved out of the way too, and found themselves either in a wreck, or also hanging off of the bridge, as well, Todd looked around, gulped, and ran over to the first car to crash through the barrier.

"Don't worry!" Todd yelled, before grabbing onto the car's bumper, and trying to pull it up. "I've got you! … Uh… C-could you, like, try and crawl into the back seat? I… I can't pull this thing up, not in time, at least!"

The cab driver, and his passenger both sat in the front seat, refusing to move, giving Todd one mean death stare. Todd rolled his eyes, somehow, and then, he saw a rolled-up cable with a hook attached to the end of it, and got an idea. He grabbed the end of it, and rolled back into a ball.

"Come on…!" Todd said, trying to motivate himself. "Come… ON!"

The car began to move up, before several of it's pipes burst, causing it practically fly back up, into the air a few feet, before landing on the ground, and it's left tires both fell out. Todd uncurled, and sighed, before realizing he forgot about the other cars.

"Oh, NO!" He yelled, and ran at each of the cars, before the one he was running towards fell off, over the edge, and into the water, until it… Didn't? "What the…?" Todd asked, confused.

Yes, the car that was hurtling towards it's doom, just moments ago, vanished into thin air, seconds before it hit the shore. Todd ignored this, and rolled towards the other car, but as soon as he curled up, every single other car began falling as well, and was teleported away, all except one, right next to him. Todd just barely managed to grab on to this car, just as it was falling, but there was no cable for him to grab, and the momentum was to great. Todd fell down into the sea with the car, and then, there was one last teleportation.

()

Todd, and the car both fell into a large, veiny room, with a huge pile of other cars, as well. While the car landed perfectly at the top of the pile, Todd fell down the pile, and landed on his head, before falling over onto his back.

"Ouch… I'm only 13, and I'm already getting too old for this…"

The drivers of the car opened their doors, meekly, and began looking around at their surroundings. The room was deep green, with yellow veins snaking their way around the entire room. There was singlelarge door, but it had no handle. The drivers all looked at Todd, and their eyes narrowed, with pure hatred, yet fear at the same time.

"You… You big, burnt marshmallow-lookin' creep! You trapped us here, didn't you?!" One of the cab drivers accused.

"Huh?" Todd gasped, surprised. "N-no, I-I didn't tr-!"

"You're gonna EAT us?! Aren't you? You're gonna have us for LUNCH!" Another driver exclaimed.

"Guys, I'm serious!" Todd tried to explain.

"Lunch?" Another man scoffed, holding a child's hand. "More like an after-dinner snack." The child giggled at his joke.

"Listen!" Todd shouted, and everybody stopped to listen. "If I WAS gonna eat you guys, or whatever, why would I be in here, TOO?!"

"Well, you're the monster!" A woman with ginger hair wrapped into pigtails shot back. "You tell us!"

"Look, alright, I'm a hero, okay?!" Todd tried to say, exacerbated. "I tried to help you guys, but your cars got teleported to some… Plant… Thing, and so did I!"

"So, you're sayin', you wanna bust us OUT of someplace you didn't even know existed a minute ago?!"

"Uh…" Todd paused. "I mean, yeah, I guess so, but-"

"Great, so you're not gonna eat us, you're just stupid?!"

Todd sighed, and leaned into the drivers, as if he was hiding information from some other being. "Listen, alright, I'm a guy who can turn into things... You know, like a superhero, okay?"

"Sheesh." One of the drivers rolled her eyes. "Okay, hero, what's your name, then?"

"Uh…" Todd thought, then remembered a book he'd found on Japanese words, specifically, the word for 'fuse.' "Let's say 'Hyuzu?' "

They stared at him. "Is… Is that even a name?"

"It's my codename. You guys asked, didn't you?"

"Whatever." They scoffed unimpressed.

Todd breathed a sigh of belief. They believed him, at least, for now, though who knows what he would do when he needed to turn back. He did wonder how Matheo would take needing to be called 'Besuto,' (Optimal) Or how Kate would take 'Yunaiteddo'(Unity), but for now, the codename worked.

"So, how do we get out of here, Hero?" The child asked, who had been kicking at Todd's ankle for the last 2 minutes.

"Good question… Hey, maybe I could… Could…" Todd stared at the kid. "Would you cut that out, uh… James?"

"Ralph." The kid stuck his tongue out at him, before staring at Todd. "Hey, how do you 'turn into things?' I wanna do that."

"Uh…" Todd changed the subject. "Like I was sayin,' I'm gonna try and break down that door by rolling through it, okay?"

"Wooah." The kid said, awestruck. "You can DO that?"

"Just watch." Todd curled up, and rolled as fast as he could towards the door, and hit it, but it had no effect. "YOUCH!"

He was sent back flying to a part of the floor that had a small white 'X' on it. There was a trap door there, which opened, and sent Todd falling into a dark pit, screaming 'Not again!' The door closed behind him, and Todd found himself covered by a large pile of dust, when a familiar beeping sound began ticking before there was a large flash of yellow light, turning Todd back to normal.

"Good… Timing…" Todd muttered, before he looked up.

He saw 2 dog-like creatures, with golden fur, 6 eyes, hands where paws should be, about 5 times the size of Todd, and growling angrily at him.

"Or not!" Todd yelled, and dived away from them.

Several lights turned on, to reveal an arena around him, with millions of aliens who were leaning forwards in their seats, all cheering 2 names, and were throwing tiny slabs of meat at Todd, making the creatures chase hungrily after him. Todd screamed, and tried to pry the meat off of him, but it was stuck to his skin.

"What's going on?!" Todd cried, before he felt the ground shift. "Oh, what now?!"

He looked down to see that the around the floor, there was a deep, deep pit with lava directly at the bottom, and the platform he was using to fight was growing extremely quickly. The dog-things hadn't seemed to notice, though.

"Come on, you stupid thing!" Todd cried, and began tapping, slapping, and banging his Splicatrix into the ground. "Work! Please, just work!"

"Scan mode, activated." The Splicatrix said, suddenly. "Please host device toward the desired subject."

"Okay…" Todd said, pointing the Splicatrix at the dog-thing on his left. "Here goes…"

There was a beam of yellow light, which projected outwards, and scanned the creature from top to bottom, despite the fact it was about 30 inches away, and the Splicatrix beeped blue to confirm the scan was complete.

"Scan complete. New DNA acquired."

"Alright!" Todd shouted, then glared at the Dog-Things, who were aggravated thanks to Todd's scan. "The predator's about to get a taste of his own medicine!"

Todd activated his Splicatrix, and selected the new sample, before slamming the core down, emitting a flash of blue light.

()

The Splicatrix glowed bright, before it covered Todd's entire arm in black and blue fur, and mutating Todd's hand so that it only had 3 fingers on it. 2 large, muscular tails shot out of his hips, and a snout grew rapidly from his nose and mouth. Todd's pupils dilated outwards, practically consuming the white in his eyes, and two ears appeared on the top of his head. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his collarbone, and he gave a loud howl.

()

The light faded, and Todd emerged from it, cracking his knuckles. Unlike the two dogs before him, Todd was standing on 2 legs, and wearing clothes. Todd's 2 tails began to turn rapidly, like helicopter blades, and he jumped into the air. The dogs stared at him, in confusion, before Todd dropped from the sky, and his mouth split into four pieces, and sent sonic waves into the Dog-Things, sending one to the edge, barely managing to pull himself out.

"Oh, wow!" Todd smirked. "You guys should hit the gym more often… As for me, I think I'm gonna call this guy… BlitzMouth. Yeah, I like that."

The dog that was almost sent into the lava got up, and began charging at BlitzMouth, and attempted to bite him, but BlitzMouth's right arm grew 3 metal plates that acted as a shield against the dog-thing's bite. BlitzMouth reopened his mouth, unleashed another sonic howl, sending the dog over the edge, and into the lava, before the dog was teleported away.

"Hey!" One of the crowd members cheered. "The fresh meat's actually kicking their tails!"

The crowd began cheering for BlitzMouth, and throwing unfinished food at the other dog-thing, who realized that BlitzMouth had disappeared. He looked around in confusion, before he looked up, and saw BlitzMouth falling from the sky, and smacked the dog-thing with his metal shield, sending him over the edge, too.

An alien in a black-and-white costume resembling a referee came over to BlitzMouth via a metal bridge, and held up his hand. "And the victor is… BLITZMOUTH!"

"Yeah!" BlitzMouth shouted, holding up his other hand. "I sure kicked their cans, huh?"

The referee shushed him. "Kid. Don't talk. You're gonna ruin the moment."

()

"And these are the Fighter's quarters, kid." A large alien in a golden hover device, with a top hat, said, leading Todd down a hallway. "You'll be staying here until further notice."

"And… How long is that?" Todd asked, uncertain.

"Well, until you lose a fight."

"Then… I get to leave…?"

"HA!" The Top-Hat Alien laughed in his face. "No, you continue fighting until you get better. You don't get to LEAVE, kid."

"But, I have to! Those gu- … Uh… Humans, with the taxis, they need to get home, they can't fight!"

The Alien smirked. "Well, it'll make the show all the more interesting when they get mauled, then."

Todd gasped. "No way! You can't be serious!"

"Serious as a shark attack, kiddo. Er… That's something they say on Earth, right?"

Todd narrowed his eyes, and held up his Splicatrix. "You ain't just gonna keep us here forever and get those people popped like bubble wrap. Not if I've got anything to say about it."

"Oh… Really?" The Top-Hat Alien hit a green button on the side of his hover-er, and a giant chaingun lowered from it. "Well you won't have a say in anything, not when I'm through with you!"

Todd gasped, and jumped into the Fighter's Quarters, and activated his Splicatrix. Todd turned it to the first Alien he saw, and slammed down the core, emitting a flash of blue light.

()

The Splicatrix became absorbed in Todd's arms, which were now massive, and grey. The Omnitrix symbol appeared on Todd's back, as well, and Todd's head became grey as well. His eyes were large, and green, with horizontal black pupils, and pointed teeth. Todd's clothes became a black-and-blue jumpsuit, with the Hands, and feet exposed. Todd shrunk down to about half-a-foot, and crouched in a vigilant pose.

()

"GREY… Matter… Oh boy." Todd gulped, looking at himself as the light faded. "I'm way too small for-!"

The alien came through the doorway, and looked around the room, but couldn't find him anywhere. He squinted to look around, but received a message from his boss, and stopped looking momentarily. Grey Matter breathed a sigh of relief, and stopped hiding behind the bed, and climbed onto the wall, then the ceiling, then landed on the top of the alien's Top-Hat. Grey Matter could now hear the conversation, too.

"Listen, Jarnet, if you don't find that kid with the watch, I will. That thing could go for TRILLIONS if you sold it to the right guy! … Actually, why stop there? I could use it to pull off the heist of the century! I could enslave the GALAXY with that thing if I used it right!"

"Uh, yeah, okay boss, but why are you telling me this?"

The phone practically exploded with anger at this interruption. "IT'S CODE YOU FOOL! CODE 'FOR GET ME THAT DEVICE, OR I'LL HAVE YOU SKINNED ALIVE,' DO YOU HEAR ME!?"

"Ah!" Jarnet exclaimed, almost dropping it. "Y-y-y-yes, sir! Right away, s-sir!"

The call ended, and Grey Matter saw his chance. He jumped off of the hat, and grabbed the phone, tackling it to the ground, and smashing it to pieces. Jarnet wailed in dismay, and began fuming.

"YOU!" He exclaimed in anger. "Oh, I'll get you, you little-!"

"Okay, alright!" Grey Matter interrupted. "You want the watch, or your cranky boss is gonna gut you, I know!"

Jarnet paused. "Yeah… So does that mean we've reached… An understanding? Will you take it off and give it to me?"

Grey Matter shook his head. "It doesn't come off. But think about this. Do you really think your boss WOULDN'T skin you if you DID get a hold of my Splicatrix?"

"I… Actually, I think he'd just forget about me!"

"Yeah!" Grey Matter agreed. "I mean, think about it like this: Even if he comes after you, so what? The galaxy's pretty big, it can't be too hard to avoid the guy! And you know what? Who cares if cranky there doesn't get what he's after, right?"

"I guess you're right… But I'd have to shut down the whole intergalactic gladiator thing if I didn't want him to find me… That's my only real source of income."

"You can just start another one, right?"

"No, Of course-" Jarnet stopped. "Actually, with the funds raised from this one… And if I were to sell the joint… Yeah, I could make that work!"

"Soo, what are you waiting for?"

"Well, nothing!" Jarnet grinned. "Thank you so much! ... If I'm being honest, I really hated working for that guy, and you got me to realize that, little guy… Is there anything I can do to repay you?

"Well…" Grey Matter twiddled his thumbs. "Me and my mates are gonna need a way to get home."

"Teleporters, got it!"

"I guess the cars are broken, so they might not need to go back."

Jarnet shrugged. "Either way."

"Hey, one other question." Grey Matter said. "Why did you abduct those people, AND their cars?"

"Well, they were falling from a bridge." Jarnet answered. "And they had big metal vehicles. I thought they might be interesting, hardcore fighters… Guess I was wrong."

Grey Matter snickered. "Yeah, Definitely."

()

Todd was teleported personally back to Earth, and had just enough time to get away from the scene before the car drivers got back to see him in human form, and activated his Splicatrix in the shadows, grinning at his work.

()

The next day, Matheo and Kate were watching the news, and the news-lady began talking about the rumors of a new shape-shifting hero named 'Hyuzu,' Who saved a group of Car drivers, Taxi drivers, and a few kids from an alien gladiator ring, then burst out laughing at what she was reading. Kate and Matheo both turned to Todd.

"Really? That's your name?" Kate asked in disbelief.

"Why would you name yourself in Japanese?" Matheo also asked.

"It means 'fuse.' " Todd said, dismissively. "Speaking of which… I kind of figured out your guys' names in advance, too."

"…No." Matheo said, Sternly. "I will not be called 'Besuto.' "

"But… But the thing…" Todd said, heartbroken.

"No way." Matheo said, shaking his head. "Never."


	5. O5: The Reign of Archius!

Matheo Harrison was currently locked away in his lab, making every possible precaution that nobody could ever enter… Unless, he somehow hit his head so hard, he let those 2 nitwits in, against his will. No, with his new, state-of-the-art security system, a lock on the door, they would never, EVER-!

"Hiya!" Kate shouted, as Todd, now in some kind of computer-alien-form finished turning himself into the door, so he could open it. "What's up?"

"You two!?" Matheo exploded with rage. "How… No, nevermind, I know HOW you violated my privacy. But why?!"

"We just wanted to check up on our favorite brother!" Todd said, in a stupid digital voice. "No need to have a conniption, or anything."

Todd was slightly taller than normal, and sort of lobby. His legs were stubby, now, and his bottom half was completely blue, while the top half was black with blue circuitry running around it, and a large blue circle that glowed when he spoke, in place of his mouth, and the Omnitrix symbol on his chest.

"Oh, really?" Matheo asked, unimpressed. "And what do you call that stupid thing? Do you call it StupidGuy? You should call it that."

"Dude!" Todd exclaimed, hurt. "I call him Upgrade…"

"Whatever." Matheo grumbled. "Just get outta my lab. NOW."

"Yo, there's, like, a crime going on outside, though. We kinda need the brawns, you know?" Kate asked.

Matheo turned around, and stared. "Wait, I thought Kate was the brawn. I'm supposed to be the brains, right?"

"I knew Matheo was the brains!" Todd cheered.

"Is… Is that really a cause for celebration?" Kate asked, before shaking her head. "What we're saying is, we could use your help, you know?"

Matheo glared at them. "Forget it. Not happening. Scram."

Todd's eyes narrowed. "Hey, dude! Don't talk to us like that!"

Kate put her hand on Todd's shoulder, and motioned her head towards the door. Todd sighed, and they both exited, leaving the door hanging wide open.

"Hey!" Matheo yelled. "Close the door, will you?!"

Nobody answered, so Matheo was forced to get up and close it himself, cursing under his breath, but the lock had been removed, probably by Todd.

"EFF!" Matheo griped. "That was my only lock! It cost 20 bucks!"

Todd did have a habit of swiping things that looked cool to him, and Matheo exploding at him probably only provoked that stupid desire of his even more. Matheo groaned loudly, and pushed his window open, before activating his Optitrix, and turning it to an alien whose feet were attached to a board with thrusters on the back of it.

"Stupid Todd!" Matheo spat. "He's gonna pay for this, literally."

Matheo raised his hand in the air, and brought it down onto the Optitrix's core, emitting a bright flash of red light.

()

The Optitrix sank into Matheo's arm, before coating it over with a golden surface, and causing his fingers to recede back into his arms as well. Matheo's stomach began to gurgle, and move violently, before 2 extra hands shot out of it. His legs became fused to a large, red-and-black hoverboard, with an Omnitrix Symbol on the thruster at the back. Matheo's face also became a large mouth, with his eyeballs being moved to his earlobes. He let out a feral cry, and beat his chest with his fingerless arms.

()

"Okay, new alien, huh?" Matheo mused. "I guess we'll call this one 'GoldenGuy,' And if Todd doesn't like it, I don't care."

GoldenGuy's hoverboard activated, and he flew out of the lab's window. GoldenGuy flew along the neighborhood's roads, but had no luck finding his troublesome twins.

"Geez. Might've been more helpful if I at least had those two tell me where they went."

GoldenGuy flew outside of the neighborhood, hoping he'd have more luck there, before a large cluster of rocks in the shape of a tentacle shot out of the ground, and wrapped itself around GoldenGuy, and began rapidly dragging him into the earth.

"HEY!?" GoldenGuy shouted, trying to wiggle free. "What's… What's the big idea?!"

There was no response, as it continued to pull him closer, into the hole that it appeared from. Matheo struggled desperately to escape, but only had one hand free. Suddenly, he got an idea. If Todd fused alien DNA together when he poked the Omnitrix symbol, maybe Matheo could do the same. He quickly tried to swing the end of his overboard towards his left hand.

"Come on…" Matheo grunted, trying to activate the symbol. "Almost… GOT IT!" He exclaimed, slamming his hand onto the symbol, and emitting a large flash of red light.

()

Matheo's Omnitrix symbol grew 4 spikes, resembling an 'X.' Matheo's four arms both fused into two, which were extremely large, and muscular. His eyes became steel balls, as well, and the inside of his mouth went from a deep red to a light green, and his teeth became sharp, and pointed, and his golden skin transformed into stainless steel, and finally, two machine guns popped out of his hoverboard. Optimized GoldGuy grinned, showing off his teeth.

()

"Huh… This doesn't look like a fusion…" Optimized GoldenGuy mused for a few seconds, before the tentacle reached the ground and tried to pull him into the sinkhole it came from. "HEY!" He yelled. "Cut… That… OUT!'

As he finished these words, Optimized GoldenGuy accidentally activated a 'turbo-boost' function on his hoverboard, and a blue, chemical fire began exploding out of his thrusters, burning the tentacle to the point where it was forced to recoil from the pain, allowing Optimized GoldenGuy to escape, still thinking about this new transformation.

"OH!" He exclaimed. "It must be some kind of evolved form of the original GoldenGuy! That's why it's called the OPTI-trix! … Man, I feel really stupid right now."

GoldenGuy heard the ground rumbling below him, and looked over the edge of his hoverboard, to see a dozen more of the earth-tentacles, all shooting directly at him. He yelped, and tried to activate the turbo-boost function again, but his hoverboard was currently on cool down. GoldenGuy sighed, before flying away at his regular speed.

"Stupid alien!" He shouted, trying to dodge the much more aggressive tentacles.

GoldenGuy circled around the tentacles, and turned his board's thrusters diagonally, so that the burn from the thrusters began cutting into them, but it had no effect on them. As a last-ditch effort, GoldenGuy turned off his hoverboard, and fell onto one of the tentacles, and revealed his teeth, and bit into it, tearing a hole in it's armor, before punching the inside of the tentacle with his fingerless hand, causing it to fall apart instantly.

"OH, CRAP!" GoldenGuy yelled, as he fell face-first into the ground. "Okay, whatever." He grumbled, getting back up. "I can take these guys."

Then, his Omnitrix symbol began to beep, and flash yellow, and GoldenGuy chuckled nervously, before looking around, then diving into a nearby shed. There was a flash of yellow, and Matheo was back to human form.

"Stupid rock tentacle, non-tax-paying… THING!" Matheo whined, and stomped his foot on the floor.

He looked out the window, and watched the tentacles look around for him for a few minutes, then finally sink into the ground, slowly. Matheo shook his head. He was going through all of this for just a stupid lock… A lock, which was directly in front of him, broken in half, and lying on the floor. Matheo knelt down, and stared at it.

"No doubt about it." He whispered. "That's… That's my lock."

Matheo looked around, and put the lock in his pocket. A million questions were swirling around in his mind, right now. Mainly, what would have been strong enough to snap something like this in half? The lock was made of re-inforced titanium, which, by the way, was NOT cheap. But it didn't matter. Todd and Kate both had those Omnitrix's too, now, so it wasn't like they couldn't defend themselves. And hey, Matheo wanted some alone time, so now he'd finally get it, away from those annoying lunatics.

"All I've gotta do is go home. That's it." He said to himself, shakily. "Easy. Just let the two dopey 'heroes' figure it out."

Then, suddenly, Matheo heard it. A cry for help, which sounded young, not like Todd, or Kate, but… A kid. Maybe even a Toddler, coming from under the floorboards. He wasn't even saying anything, just yelling, loud enough for Matheo to hear it, even from above ground. Matheo didn't think about anything for a few seconds. He must have been in the shed long enough for his Optitrix to recharge, because he activated it immediately, and slammed down the core, emitting a bright, red light.

()

The Optitrix sent out metallic tentacles, that layer themselves around Matheo's arm. His fingers sank into his hands, and his hands themselves grew extremely long, both resembling halves of a baseball bat. His nose and mouth both molted into his face, while his eyes multiplied into six, and became dark, black holes. A cap appeared on his head, with the Omnitrix symbol on it, and he breathed a gust of wind out of his eyeholes.

()

Matheo looked down directly at the floor, and shot out a dozen hard, grey balls at it, blowing a giant hole in the floorboards, and the actual ground too. Matheo jumped into the hole, and slid down it, avoiding the stalactites racing at him. He finished with a frontflip out of the hole, landing on a rickety wooden bridge.

"ARGH!" The same voice screamed from behind him. "It's another monster!"

Matheo turned around, and saw a kid whos about 6, and tied to a wooden pole, and kicking his feet. He was wearing a striped yellow and red T-shirt, and black shorts, with messy hair.

"Hey, look, kid." Matheo said, putting his hands up. "I'm not a monster, alright?"

"...Are you sure about that? You look like one."

"Ugh." Matheo groaned. "Look, if I untie you, will you quit calling me that?"

"Uh…" The kid looked at him funny. "I guess. Are you gonna untie everybody else down here, too?"

"...What?" Matheo asked, confused, before he looked to his left, and saw at least 3 dozen people. "Oh. Yeah, sure."

Matheo leaned over, and tried to untie the ropes that were holding the kid in place, but couldn't, since his fingers were gone. He gulped, and thought for a second. He closed 5 of his eye-holes, except for the middle-left one, and shot out a slimy, grey ball, which split the wooden stake in half. The kid wiggle around, and eventually climbed out of the ropes, and jumped in front of Matheo.

"You almost killed me, man!"

"Uh…" Matheo paused. "...Well, I mean, I didn't, so, we're all good here, right?"

"I guess." The kid said. "My name's Jamie, by the way. What's yours, mister?"

"Uh… Home-Run-Guy."

"What kind of name is THAT?!" Jamie shouted in bewilderment.

"Look, I've got people to untie, OK? So could you just-?"

"You know what your name SHOULD be?" Jamie continued. "It SHOULD be… 'The Baller…' OOH, or 'Swiss Cheese.' OOH, OOH! Or FaceBall!"

"FINE!" Matheo shouted. "MY NAME IS 'FACEBALL!' Are you HAPPY, NOW?!"

FaceBall and Jamie both paused, as Faceball's yelling seemed to reverb around the entirety of the cave, and a roar sounded from the other side of the cave. Faceball yelped and jumped into the air, shooting balls in every direction around him, splitting every wooden stake in half in the span of a few seconds. Everybody who was tied up cheered briefly, before seeing the creature drawing closer, and started climbing out of the hole FaceBall made in the floor.

"Hey, FaceBall." Jamie said, tugging on his sleeve. "Aren't you gonna go?"

"... Not yet, kid." FaceBall groaned, glaring at the shadows that were flying towards them. "I've gotta take down whatever that thing is, before it… Y'know, recaptures you."

Jamie nodded, and climbed up the hole with everyone else. FaceBall looked up, and shot all 6 balls into the air at the same time. They fused into a gigantic glowing projectile, and began falling. FaceBall put his hands together, which fused together to become a giant metal bat, which he sent flying into the roof of the cave.

"Bullseye." He smirked.

As the ceiling exploded, and boulders began falling, FaceBall jumped off of the platform, onto a falling boulder, then onto another. Meanwhile, directly above the explosion, most of the boulders were forming a barricade, which would hopefully keep the monster away from the hole. The problem is that if FaceBall didn't make it in time, he wouldn't be able to get TO the monster. After a few more boulders he was able to narrowly dive through the last empty space, and made it to the other side.

"Matheo! Watch out!" He heard Kate yell, as he saw a giant, dragon-like beast go flying towards him.

FaceBall yelled, and before he knew what he was doing, fused his hands together again, and smacked the dragon with enough force to send it in the complete opposite direction, smacking face-first onto the tough cave ceiling.

"Close one, huh, bro?" Todd asked, as BlitzMouth. "This guy's no joke, that's for sure."

"You guys, why didn't you help the hostages?!" FaceBall sputtered, confused.

"Duh." Todd replied, rolling his eyes. "We can't help hostages if they've been eaten."

"What he means is, we're gonna get to it after we take care of this dragon dude." Kate said, landing on the ground.

"Well." FaceBall said, puffing out his chest. "You don't need to anymore, cuz I took care of the hostages!"

Todd and Kate both stared at him, surprised. "You're… You're joking, right?"

"Nope."

Todd grinned. "Well, whaddya know. Looks like even YOU'VE got a little hero in you, too!"

"Oh, shaddup." FaceBall sighed. "Anyways… Hey, where'd the dragon go… I thought he was stuck in here."

"Oh he is, he's just cloaked." Kate explained.

"...What'd you just say?" FaceBall asked, staring daggers at them.

"Did… Did you misunderstand that? She said it in English, y'know." Todd joked.

Suddenly, the room filled with flames, while both Kate and Todd flew away to avoid them, FaceBall used his metal skin to his advantage, and ran directly threw it, and punching the dragon squarely between the eyes, before he shot 6 balls directly into it's face, which all exploded on impact.

"Take that, you overgrown chameleon!" FaceBall taunted, backflipping off it's snout before the dragon swiped at him.

-SILENCE, FOOL!- The dragon 'said.'

Everybody stopped, and stared at him. The dragon stared back at all of them. Somehow, it was speaking without it's mouth moving.

"Did… Did the dragon just talk?" Todd asked, bewildered.

-YES I CAN TALK. DON'T BE SO SURPRISED.-

"Yeah, okay." Kate groaned. "But, literally, who cares?!"

-YOU SHOULD CARE, MORTALS. I AM ARCHIUS, THE DRAGON PRINCE. AND I HAVE RETURNED TO EARTH TO FINALLY DESTROY THE HUMAN RACE, ONCE AND FOR ALL!-

Several more Earth-Tentacles reached down from the ceiling, and grabbed them, squeezing their bodies extremely tightly.

-AND NOW, YOU WILL BECOME THE FIRST TARGETS, AS I POP YOU OPEN!-

"Not… Happening…" FaceBall grunted, and glared at the tentacles holding both Todd and Kate. "Come on, just need to be precise…"

FaceBall squinted all of his left eye-holes closed, and shot three balls out, each one cutting a different tentacle in half, and causing them all to fall apart. The triplets fell onto the ground, and stared at Archius.

-DO YOU TRULY BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?! YOU PUNY HUMANS!?-

"Anytime you guys wanna make a plan…" Kate whispered, concerned.

"Oh, I've gotta plan. Kate, when he shoots tentacle at me, I need you to cut it in half."

"Why?"

"No time to explain!"

-I'LL BEGIN WITH YOUR DEMISE, ARCHER!- Archius roared, and shot an Earth Tentacle at FaceBall.

Kate nodded, and transformed her arm into a diamond blade, before cutting off the end of tentacle. Archius winced. Matheo smirked, and shot a single ball into the purple of the tentacle, and it traveled all throughout the tentacle. Archius suddenly began screaming, and fell over in pain. The sound of his shouting made the cave begin to rumble, and cave in on itself.

"What did you do?!" Todd asked, running over to a metal door, and turning the handle.

"Simple." Matheo shrugged. "If Archius is controlling the earth through magic, then he would have felt a projectile forcing itself through the essence of his magic. In short, I hit his spell, and he felt that, spiritually."

"Huh." Kate thought. "Well, you're the brains for a reason."

"But I'm still cool, right?"

"Guys!" Todd interrupted. "It's open, let's GO!"

The triplets ran through the metal hallway, and climbed up the ladder, as the cave-in forced the tube around them to get smaller, and smaller.

"Go, go go!" Todd shouted, practically flying up the ladder.

"Oh, yeah, because I'm just on a leisurely stroll over here!" Matheo shouted, as a hole split open in the tube, causing dirt to pour down, into their escape route.

"We're almost there!" Kate yelled, pointing to the light up above.

Suddenly, Matheo's Omnitrix began beeping, and he turned back to human. Due to his new proportions, he wasn't hanging onto the ladder, and began to fall down into the tube, before kate grabbed his arm, and swung him back to the ladder.

"Gotcha!" She shouted.

"...Thanks." Matheo said, breathlessly, still climbing. "I thought you'd… I thought you'd let me fall!"

"Why?"

"I guess… I guess it just made sense in the moment."

"Whatever." Kate said. "Just don't fall again, okay?"

A few seconds later, the twins reached the top of the ladder, and opened a large metal trapdoor, labeled 'feeding grounds.' as the triplets finally returned to the daylight, Todd's Omnitrix symbol flashed yellow, and he transformed back to human.

"Well, I'm glad that all worked out in the end, right, guys?"

"Hey, I've got a question, you guys." Matheo mused. "So… How'd you end up down there in the first place?"

"Well, we got bored of looking around, until we got attacked by these huge tentacles, and then followed it down through that hatch over there, and started fighting the dragon dude." Todd explained.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Kate agreed.

"Okay…" Matheo nodded. "One last question, Todd. What happened to my LOCK?"

"Huh?" Todd asked, confused. "You mean the lock on your lab? Isn't it still there?"

Matheo's eyes narrowed. "Don't try and pull THAT stunt, Todd. I know you took it."

"I'm serious, dude."

"Kate, help me out here." Matheo asked, desperately.

"Well, as much as I'd like to see Todd get chewed out… I don't wanna see it happen for something he didn't DO."

Matheo was stunned. That means Todd really DIDN'T take the lock.

"But… But if you didn't, then who DID?" Matheo asked, before he looked down at the broken lock, and gulped.

He knew exactly who took it.


	6. O6: No Cats Allowed

**(Author's Note: Okay, so this is actually really popular, with over a hundred views (total.), And they're not dropping off, either. I'm really glad to see you guys are enjoying this fanfic, so I'm extremely thankful for the response! Alright, with that out of the way, onto the chapter. =] )**

Kate Harrison would almost definitely describe herself as a girl who had it all. That is, 2 days ago. Because ever since then, her best-est, greatest-est friend ever, Lebana Worpice, broke up with her boyfriend. And, BOY, was it violent. Lebana wouldn't stop ranting about how terrible her boyfriend, Jacob, was to her, and yelling stories about how he would force her to wear dresses 3 sizes too small, because HE said so, and SHE had no say in anything, at all.

"… And THEN, his mom came in!" Lebana told Kate. "And SHE said, 'Oh, Jakie, you lil' smoochie! What is this, your 5th girlfriend this month?' "

"No way." Kate said, immersed completely. "What'd he say?"

"You'll never guess, Katie. He said: 'Nah, mama, this is my 8th.' Can you believe him?! He was just so open about how much of a PIG he is!"

"Man…" Kate chuckled. "I am NEVER gonna get a boyfriend."

"If all boys are like that, then yeah, count me in."

"You know, we get along better together with each other than with any boy…" Kate joked. "Maybe, we should just date each other."

"Uh, yeah, no thanks." Lebana laughed. "We know each other too well!"

"Yeah." Kate suddenly felt a lump form in her throat. "Uh… Leb, if… Y'know… Look, what if I was like… What if there was some side of me, that you never even KNEW about?"

"Omigosh." Lebana sat up from her seat. "Are you trying to say that you're 'Yunai?' … Is my best friend a superhero?!"

"Wha-a-at…?" Kate asked, her eyes practically bulging out of her head. "N-no… Uh, who's 'Yunai?' "

Kate was part of the currently almost-official team of superheroes unofficially known as the Omni-Triplets, along with her 2 brothers. They each had somewhat mangled Japanese names, all of which Todd had come up with about a week ago, while he was talking with a group of cab drivers inside of some space gladiator ring. Kate's name was supposed to mean 'Unity,' since she wielded the 'Unitrix.' (She knew this by getting Matheo to bring up her Unitrix's GUI, and reading it's name.) The problem is, Kate hadn't even finished her costume yet, and had only been referenced by name. By Todd. In a single interview. Yesterday. It was pretty much impossible for Lebana to have known that, but yet, here they were.

"How did you know that?" Kate asked, beginning to break into a light sweat.

"DUH!" Lebana said, ecstatic. "She's only the latest member of the Japanese superhero team, which I've dubbed, 'The Katachi League!' "

Kate tried to ignore how much that name would actually fit them. "Okay, but still. I mean, I love superheroes, and I've never heard of this 'Yunai' Gal. Are you sure she's not a hoax? Y'know, like an extra girl in the team, like, for representation, or something?"

"Jeez, Kate, you must REALLY be out of the loop. No, Yunai doesn't function Hyu, or Besu. Instead of turning completely into a monster to fight crime, SHE only transforms part of her body at a time, and combines them! It's all over the news, y'know. I'd even hazard a guess that she's the most popular member!"

Matheo would HATE to hear he was being overshadowed by a girl, especially if that girl's name was Kate Harrison, but here we are. Kate began thinking about how much of a tantrum Matheo would probably start throwing if he found out about that, and she started snickering.

"Uh, yeah." Kate sighed. "So… How about that boyfriend, huh?"

But Lebana was giving Kate a dirty look, now. "No, I think I'm done talkin' with you, especially if you think it's so funny."

"Hey, Lebana!" Kate called to her, as Lebana stood up, and left the Cafeteria. "I didn't… I wasn't laughing at YOU, I was just…"

Kate sighed. She sat down, and rubbed her forehead with her hands. Great. She'd be lucky if Lebana ever looked at her again. As if things couldn't get any worse, Kate spotted her brother, Todd, who was walking towards her table. Kate scooched over begrudgingly, and Todd sat next to her.

"Soo…" Todd said, biting into his sandwich. "You got any clue what's up with Matheo? He's been acting weird ever since that whole 'lock' thing the other day."

"… No, I don't." Kate answered, confused. "Why, should I know?"

"Well, ever since then, he hasn't come out of his room. I just hope he's… You know, alright."

"Uh-huh." Kate agreed. "I guess that's a pretty good reason to be concerned. Also, he IS Matheo. I guess that kid can get himself into trouble, no matter the scenario."

"Yeah. I mean, I've even tried everything to get him out. I knocked on his door, I upgraded his door, and opened it, and even looked around, and I couldn't find him ANYWHERE."

"Oh… Well, I guess that's step 1 outta the way."

"Yeah. Come on, we should probably check out his room a bit more."

"… Alright."

Todd stood up, before turning back to look at Kate. "Hey, is something wrong?"

"Huh? Nah, it's just… You know what, it's nothing."

Kate stood up, and both she and Todd walked out of the cafeteria. School had been over for about 36 minutes, so the halls were practically empty, except for the wayward student wandering down the hall. Kate assumed she wouldn't run into any of her friends while she was walking down the hall, but she definitely wasn't expecting what happened next. Her head began to throb rapidly, a little to the left side of her head. She hardly understood what was happening, but all the same, she tackled Todd to the ground.

"HEY!" Todd shouted. "Get off me!"

The wall in front of them exploded, sending debris flying all over the hallway, and from the smoke emerged a feminine figure, with two ears sprouting out of the top of her head. She was wearing a black jumpsuit, and a black cat mask, with purple accents. Blonde, curly hair exploded out of the back of her head. She wore a purple utility belt, with a cat's face in the middle.

"Hey, kiddies." She smirked.

"What the heck?" Kate asked, standing up. "Are you, like, a 'Lucky Girl' fan?"

Lucky Girl was a cat-themed superhero show that had been running for about 8 years now, and it was probably the biggest superhero show on TV. EVERYONE watched it, even adults. Though, since it was a kid's show, nobody ever really admitted it. However, people did love to cosplay for it, since the costume was pretty easy to replicate in real life, the hardest parts being the mask, as well as the utility belt.

"Oh." The lady smirked. "I'm no fan, I'm the real deal."

"No way!" Todd shouted, starstruck. "For real?! ... You know, I'm something of a 'hero,' myself. Maybe we should hang out sometime."

"Sorry, boy." Lucky Girl replied. "I gave up the hero thing a while ago. And I'm visiting your school, because of the rumors that it's powers come from an ancient, Elektra Emerald. As I'm sure you can guess, I'm here to steal it."

"Wait!" Kate yelled. "Why?! I didn't even know you were real until a few seconds ago, but I do know one thing about you, and that's that you're a famous, awesome cat-HERO, not a cat-THIEF!"

"Well, Katie, you should check your sources…" Lucky Girl smirked. "By the way, CAT-ch."

With these words, she took a grenade out of her belt, pressed a small red button, and threw it at our heroes. She laughed, and extruded ten large, metal claws from her gloves, and started climbing on the ceiling, and into the stairway.

"Oh, that was terrible!" Todd yelled, and activated his Splicatrix, before selecting Heatblast, and slamming his core down.

()

There was a flash of blue light, and the Splicatrix sank into Todd's skin, before molten rocks began to cover his body, burning his clothes and hair off. His toes fused together, into a hook light shape, and becoming pure magma, the same going for his hands, while his head became engulfed in fire, forming a mask of rocks, with the Omnitrix symbol appearing on his chest.

()

The light faded, before HeatBlast jumped at the grenade, surrounding it with his hands, so that when it exploded, there was no effect. He smirked, and threw the pile of dust, sulfur, and wayward shrapnel behind him.

"Okay, let's go take care of that stray cat."

"Wait." Kate put her hand up. "There's something about her I can't figure out."

"DUH!" HeatBlast moaned. "She's a character from a comic book, in the real world! Of course she's got, like, a weird aura, and stuff."

"No, it's not that." Kate thought. "It's just that, before the wall exploded, I knew she was gonna come through, and I was, like, able to sense it before it happened… Or something."

"Don't get it twisted, sis." HeatBlast waved dismissively. "You probably just heard her coming."

"No, I don't… You know what, it's not important. But if something like that Elek… Whatever Emerald is in the school, it's probably in the basement."

"Then we know where that is, and she doesn't. That gives US the advantage."

"Not if you keep running your mouth for much longer." Kate morphed a slimy tube out of her back, and used it to begin flying down the hallway. "Come on!"

HeatBlast put both of his arms out, and the chunk of the floor that was underneath him lifted out of the ground, and he rode it as if it were a surfboard after Kate.

"So… I think the only entrance to the basement is in the principal's office."

Oh, okay, well then let me just throw my costume on. My backpack should be just in this next room. I'll go get it."

"Kate, we don't have time for this… I'm gonna have to go without you."

Kate looked back to HeatBlast, and gave him a thumbs up.

()

She ran up the stairs, and into the nearest classroom, and reached into the cubby, and pulled out a yellow and green sweater, as well as combat boots. Lastly, there were blue kitchen gloves, and white beanie, with purple goggles.

"Well, it's not fashionable, but it'll have to do, I guess." Yunai scratched her head. "And itchy. I'll have to fix that." She zipped up her backpack, and laid it against the wall.

She ran back to the entrance of the classroom, before the door was blown open, and Lucky Girl walked through the smoke, and glared at Yunai. Lucky Girl smirked, and pulled out a metal, electrified whip out from her utility belt, whipped the ground, and began sauntering towards Yunai.

"Where do you get this stuff?" Yunai asked, suddenly having a realization. "Hey… For an 18-year-old, you're awfully short."

Lucky Girl didn't respond, and whipped the light above Yunai, causing it to fall from the roof. Yunai yelped, and cartwheeled out of the way. After she landed, Yunai mutated her leg into a long, black coil with a bronze plug at the end, and sent it directly at Lucky Girl's whip.

"What the-?!" Lucky Girl shouted, trying to separate the whip from the coil. "What are you doing?!"

Yunai absorbed the energy from Lucky Girls whip, before mutating her arm into a pitch-black hand, with bronze, square tips at the ends. She jumped in the air, her mutated hand glowed blue, and landed an electrified punch directly to Lucky Girl's mask, causing it to dent. Lucky Girl herself was sent flying back into a row of desks behind her.

"Oh, Y'know, just offering a lil' constructive FeedBack." Yunai smirked.

Lucky Girl stood up, holding a desk in her hands, and threw it at Yunai, who slid under it, before kicking out Lucky Girl's ankles, and she tripped.

"Well, this has been fun, but I have a clueless brother to help get to a certain educational basement. See ya!" Yunai spun around, and ran out the door.

"Get back here!" Lucky Girl yelled, getting up, then sprinting after Yunai. "Our little CAT-fight isn't over!"

"I beg to differ." Yunai muttered.

She mutated her arm into an arm of golden, flowing magma, covered by red volcanic rock, then aimed it behind her, creating a wall of flame and smoke.

()

Yunai ran back down the stairs, and opened the door of the Principal's office, only to see Principal Rudy, screaming in the middle of the office, and shooting out fire-extinguishing smoke at HeatBlast, who was desperately trying to get away from him.

"Hey!" Yunai shouted.

Both Principal Rudy and HeatBlast looked at her.

"Uh… Young lady, I don't know if you should be here, maybe you should be getting back to class before this LITERAL FIRE MONSTER kills you? ... Y'know, just a thought."

"Will you cut it out?!" HeatBlast shouted, exasperated. "I ain't no monster, and I'm not trying to eat anybody!"

"THAT'S JUST WHAT YOU WANT ME TO THINK!" Principal Rudy screamed, and shot him again.

"Mr. Rudy." Yunai said, trying not to lose confidence. "I am Yunai. And this is my friend Hyu, in an a monstrous form, in order to help fight off evil!"

"HYU?!" Rudy exclaimed, and dropped the fire extinguisher immediately. "Oh, my! I'm so sorry! If I'd known, I would've-!"

"It's cool, it's cool." HeatBlast groaned, wiping the goo off of him. "Look, we need answers, alright?"

"Yes, of course! Anything at all!"

"Well, it's about the Elektra Emerald rumors. Are those true?" Yunai inquired.

"Elektra Emerald, you say…" Rudy thought. "Well, I suppose, but…"

"Bad news, Mr. man-in-suit!" A familiar voice sounded through the room, and everyone looked at the entrance, revealing Lucky Girl, who was menacingly walking towards them. "That little Emerald's all mine now!"

"Oh, sure!" Yunai grinned. "When pigs fly."

Todd uncharacteristically jumped behind a wall, and hid from the ensuing battle, but Yunai paid it no mind. She mutated her face, so that her mouth became white and green, with two wires that rode from her mouth into the Unitrix-Chip. With this amplified mouth, she was able to yell, and the soundwaves were enough to send Lucky Girl flying back through the glass door entrance. While Lucky Girl was incapacitated, Yunai heard HeatBlast trying to get her attention.

"KA- uh… I mean, YUNAI!" He yelled. "You gotta see this!"

"What?!" Yunai asked, frantically jumping over to him.

HeatBlast was turning his Omnitrix symbol, and pointed grey glyphs wired all around it. He was grinning smugly.

"This whole time, whenever I've tried to Splice alien DNA together, I couldn't control what I was fusing with… But I'm thinking, that if I really look at these little symbols scribbled on the dial, turn it to the right one, and…"

HeatBlast grinned, and slapped his hand on the Omnitrix symbol, emitting a flash of electrifying blue light.

()

HeastBlast's arms split into two, all 4 of which became extremely muscular. As well as this, he grew to about 8 feet, as well, and his eyes also split apart into 2, revealing 4 new eyes, as well. He flexed his new, muscular body.

()

"HeatBlast… And HandyMan, huh? That's obvious, HandyBlast."

"Wait, hold on…" Yunai said. "You call the big guy with four arms… 'HandyMan?' "

"Yeah… What of it?" HandyBlast asked.

"That's just really lame, dude."

"I'm not changing it, sis."

"Whatever. Let's go take care of that annoying catgirl once and for all, huh bro?"

"Couldn't agree more." HandyBlast said, cracking his knuckles.

The pair rushed over to the door, but there was giant hole in the floor, and Lucky Girl was completely missing. They both looked at each other, then back at the hole itself, before jumping down into it, and landing on the cold, slimy floor.

"Ew…" Yunai said, disgusted. "Something tells me Haggard Academy doesn't clean up the basement too often."

"Yeah. This 'Lucky Girl' isn't a very good cat if she's wading around somewhere so wet." HandyBlast observed.

"There's just something off about 'Lucky Girl' in general. The more I get to know about her, the less she seems like the character gone down a dark road in life, and more like an edgy impersonator."

HandyBlast snickered. " 'Edgy…' That's priceless, especially out of your mouth."

"Why mine?"

"Your voice is so nerdy, that's why."

"Whatever. I'd like to get off the stupid express, please." Yunai shot back. "Speaking of which, how long does this tunnel go for?"

"The tunnel ends…" They heard Lucky Girl hiss. "… When YOU do!"

HandyBlast yanked a pipe out of the wall, causing steam to fly everywhere, and swung at Lucky Girl with it, only for her to grab it, and push off of it, and delivering a kick to his face. She jumped off away from them, and threw an expandable foam bomb at them, before HandyBlast meted the foam with his flames.

"This ends now, Lucky Girl!" Yunai shouted, and ran at her.

"On the contrary, Katie!" She shouted. "This ends now!"

"Wait." Yunai stopped in her tracks. "What did you just-?"

Lucky Girl didn't waste a moment. She took out her freshly recharged electric whip, and used it to trap Yunai, electrifying her, and dropping to her knees.

"NO!" HandyBlast yelled, before raising his hands in the air, smashing the ground open, tearing a chunk of concrete out of the ground, and threw it at Lucky Girl, hitting her so hard, that she tumbled away, into a pile of rocks. "Yunai! Are you okay?!"

"It's cool, Todd." Yunai said, weakly. "I'm gonna make it. Just gimme a sec."

The rock pile behind them began to move, and Lucky Girl raised out of it, her mask now torn in half, and laying, battered on the ground. She turned around, and stared at HandyBlast, and Yunai, now with a fresh, bloody bruise on her cheek. Yunai gasped. She couldn't believe her eyes. This wasn't true. There was no way, no way that this whole time, this 'Lucky Girl,' had really been…

"Amy?" Yunai asked, as she tried to stand up. "Oh, oh my god. Amy, is that you?"

"Amy… Lockehart?" HandyBlast asked, his voice cracking. "No way. Y-you've gotta be joking, right?"

Amy froze. She looked down at her mask, then back at the twins. Her eye began twitching slightly. She pulled herself out of the rubble, and wiped the grime off her face, before coming face-to-face with them.

"Yeah. It's me. Amy Lockehart. Who cares? You don't, right Kate? I mean, ever since you got your super cool powers, you never had any time for me anyway, right?"

"Amy, is THAT what this is about?!" Yunai yelled. "I can't just spend every moment of my life with you, you know! … A-and, how did you even know about that, anyway?!"

"You of all people would probably believe that, 'Yunai.' I'm actually a mix of two different races. Half-human, and half Revonnahgander."

"But why?!" Yunai pleaded. "Why on Earth would you ever do any of THIS?!"

"That's on a need-to-know basis." Amy said, angrily. "And dead people don't need to know anything!"

Amy ran at Yunai, but HandyBlast grabbed her by the shoulders, and put her back onto the ground, before he transformed back into human, with a flash of yellow light. Todd looked sadly at her.

"Look, Amy, we don't have to be enemies. We really shouldn't be. Because… If I'm being honest, I don't… No, I WON'T fight you."

"Aw…" Amy cooed. "You're officially my favorite…" Amy punched Todd in the stomach, and pushed him to the ground. "… To mess with."

Amy turned her back on them, and ran over to a heavily locked door, and used a lockpick to unlock the door, quickly. Yunai didn't know how she was going to make herself fight her own friend, but she was going to have to try. She ran over to Amy, and tried to attack her, but Amy flung the door into Yunai's face, smacking her into the ground.

"See you in the poor magazines, Katie! I'm gonna be a millionaire after this!"

Amy ran into the room, and Yunai followed her inside, only for both of them to realize something huge. There was no emerald, only a huge system of wires that were shaped in a series of hexagons. Amy looked around the room, and she began laughing uncontrollably. Yunai tried to mutate her arms, but the Unitrix chip began beeping yellow, and suddenly, she couldn't mutate anymore.

Amy turned, viciously eying Yunai. "Well, well, well… You knew, about this whole Elektra Emerald sham, didn't you? I mean, it's so obvious now, 'Electric Emerald?' Oh, man. You really, really want to make me mad, don't you?"

"Wait, Amy, come on, we can talk about this right? … right?" Yunai gulped, and started backing away from her.

"Nope. No talking. Not anymore, Katie." Amy pulled out her electric whip, and activated it, her eyes becoming practically vacant. "It's over."

She raised the whip in the air, and Yunai shut her eyes. Then there was a loud 'Thunk' noise, and then another, which sounded like a body hitting the floor, and Kate opened her eyes to see Todd standing over Amy's body, holding the pipe he'd torn off earlier. He looked at Yunai, and reached out his hand. She smiled, and took it, as Todd helped her up.

"Wow." Todd said, staring at the practically demolished basement behind them. "You uh, you really know how to pick 'em, don't you, sis?"

"That's one way to put it, I guess." Yunai said, taking off her helmet. "Today's just been one of those days, huh?"

"Yeah." Todd agreed, before his eyes widened. "Uh-oh. Looks like the cops are here. We should skedaddle!"

"Come on!" Kate motioned for Todd to follow her. "I know another way outta here!"

The twins sprinted out of the basement, as the cops began lowering themselves into it.

()

The twins finally reached their house, and saw that the door was wide open. They immediately stopped walking, and began running into the house as fast as they could.

"Uh-oh!" Kate said, as they were running. "I think we might've been robbed!"

"No…" Todd said. "Call it a hunch, but if it was robbed, don't you think they'd close the door, so as not to, I dunno, tip us off?"

"Good point. But if that's not the case, then what is?!"

As the twins entered the house, they saw Matheo who was currently tied to an armchair, and with a white rope over his mouth. As well as that, next to him was a giant blue and black chimp, with 8 limbs, instead of four, and 8 eyes. He turned around, and stared at the twins.

"Ah, you're Todd, right?" He asked, in a sort of raspy, flat voice. "I've heard a lot about you, such as how you were the target Jarnet was chasing before his Gladiator ring shut down."

"What are you doing to our bother?!" Kate asked, surprised. "Who are you?!"

"Your brother here was hiding something extremely important in a lock… It's a long story. Sit down, I'll tell you all about it. Oh, and as for my name, It's Simian. Nice to meet you kids."


	7. O7: Simian's Shard!

Todd Harrison was the wielder of an extremely powerful device, known as the Splicatrix, which allowed him to not only transform into over a dozen alien species, 17, in fact. The first alien he ever transformed into was a giant, blue monkey, with 8 limbs, and 8 eyes. He named the alien, "SpiderMonkey," as it had the ability to climb up walls, and shoot webs out of it's tail. That was why he was extremely confused as to why there was another one of that species, sitting directly in front of him.

"Simian." Simian said, calmly. "My name is Simian. You know, since you're asking."

Todd was standing in his living room, with his twin sister Kate, who was staring at Simian as well. There was also the fact that the twin brother of BOTH of them, was sitting in the recliner, tied to it, with a large amount of abnormally large webbing, and glaring at all three of them.

"Yeah, okay!" Kate said, sternly. "What about the lock, w-why is our bother tied to the RECLINER?!"

"Yeah!" Todd said. "Give us some answers, or ELSE."

"Woah, woah." Simian said, putting his hands up. "Relax, kids. I mean, I know how this probably looks, but-"

"Yeah?" Todd asked, stepping forward. "It's gonna look a lot worse, if you don't let. Him. Go."

"Fine. But he's extremely dangerous you know. He also started using some unpleasant words to describe me, so I couldn't just let him go talking, either."

Simian walked over to Matheo, and tore the webbing from his mouth. He immediately began hyperventilating, and muttering incoherently in response.

"Matheo." Kate said, and walked over to him, feeling his forehead. "How're you doing, bro?"

"Mmpph…" Matheo groaned. "I feel like, a negative million bucks… How about you?"

"Simian. What's wrong with him?" Todd asked, trying to sound a little confrontational.

"He's fine, he's fine." Simian said, dismissively. "Say, do you have more of this 'tea,' lying around? It's delectable."

"We'd… We'd have to make some more." Kate said, sitting down on the couch. "So, what's up with, y'know, his Lock… The whole, like dangerous weapon inside it?"

"Right, right." Simian said. "Never miss a beat, do you kids? You might want to learn to be a bit more patient, take conversations for what they're worth. They're not just info-dumps, y'know."

"Cut it out, Simian." Todd said, sternly. "We just want to know why Matheo's tied up like that, and why you're here."

"You know what, Todd, if that's even your real name, I've had just about enough of you. You completely ruined one of MY money-making schemes. I put a lot of work, and planning into that, and what happens?" Simian narrowed his eyes. "Some earth kid comes along, and shuts it down, in the span of about, let's say 3 hours. For my sake."

"Yeah?" Todd asked.

"And now, here we are. Talking, like we're the best of chums, well I don't buy it! You don't get to make the demands here, kid, and that's final!"

"Oh, yeah?!" Todd shouted, holding up his Splicatrix. "I've got 17 aliens at my disposal, right here, and they'll all get you to HEAVILY reconsider that!"

"And here we go again." Simian sighed. "I'm here BECAUSE you kids have those things on you, not to fight you. But how am I supposed to work with you kids if you're going to just start yelling about beating me up? So, I'm going to make this incredibly clear. I NEED your help, and I'm not leaving, 'til I get it, got it?"

"Todd, please." Kate said, staring at him. "Let's just hear him out."

"Fine." Todd said, crossing his arms. "So, let's start over. What's up with that lock?"

"Allow me to answer that question, with a question. Your brother, Matheo, here. Is he generally considered to be, how you say, pretty bright?" Simian asked.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Kate said. "He can invent pretty much anything."

"Interesting. I ask this, because apparently, there was a Khyber Shard, hidden deep within the mechanisms of the lock."

"What's a 'Khyber Shard?' " Todd asked, cocking his head to the side.

"It's a crystal which can provide the power of approximately 1.2 billion lightning bolts simultaneously, for at least a few billion years. Incredibly rare. And your brother here was just carrying one around, inside of a lock. One of my agents caught wind of this, and stole his lock 2 days ago."

"Okay, so where's the shard, then?" Todd asked.

"He must have decided to keep it for himself. Those shards are incredibly rare, you know. He could probably sell it for quadrillions of Taydens, that is, if he got to the right guy."

"And lemme guess." Kate added. "You're here, to enlist us to get it back."

"Oh, not you." Simian said. "Just Matheo. He's the one who acquired it in the first place, he's the one who lost it, so he'll be the most useful in helping me get it back."

"Sorry, dude. Me, Matheo, and Kate are kind of a complete package. You take one of us, you take all of us."

"Is that so, 'dude?' Well, I'm not going to pay three of you to get back a single artifact." Simian said, simply. "So, I'm only taking him. You can rest easy knowing your brother is exactly where I said he'd be, so no need to worry."

Simian grabbed a remote control off of the table, and grabbed onto Matheo. He pressed a large, yellow button on it. He waved goodbye to Todd and Kate.

"Wait!" Todd shouted, and lunged at him, but Simian and Matheo had already vanished. "UNF!" Todd yelled, as he tumbled into the floor.

"He probably zapped back to his ship, which could be anywhere... I think." Kate said, thoughtfully.

"Real helpful." Todd picked himself up off the ground. "We need to figure out where that ship is."

"Well, Matheo's pretty smart, but he's not 'alien-spaceship-tracking' smart." Kate offered. "So, you know, that's out of the question."

"And, if his spaceship was just chilling outside, we would have definitely seen it." Todd thought, before he snapped his fingers. "A-HA! I've got it! I'll use the 'Brodon Stream' to find him!"

"I'm sorry, did you just say 'The Brodon Stream?' What's that supposed to be?"

"Turns out, my Splicatrix, and Matheo's Optitrix are actually kind of linked. That includes a two-way tracking device. Let me see if I can find out how to turn it on."

Todd slid his index and middle fingers over the lid of his Splicatrix, and the ring of selectable aliens popped up. Todd noticed a small symbol, consisting of three lines. He tapped it with his fingers, and a whole new menu popped up, with plenty of other icons. Todd looked through the menu, until he saw a symbol that looked like two Splicatrixes, with two signals being sent between them. Todd tapped this, and yet another menu popped up, this one a radar, showing A white dot in the middle, and a red dot southwest of him, and a distance of 47.8 miles.

"He's pretty far. According to his coordinates, Matheo's about 5 miles in the air." Todd squinted at the radar, before exhaling. "He's also moving away from us slowly, but picking up speed. If we're going to get him before he launches into the stratosphere, we're gonna need to hurry."

Kate nodded. "Okay. Then let's get on with it."

"Alright. You transform, and I'll navigate."

Kate threw on her helmet and mask, before she ran outside, and mutated her legs into turbo-thrusters. She also grew two spherical, insect-like wings, as well, and finally, two extra, muscular red arms. She picked up Todd, who was still running the location search.

"Which direction are we going?" Yunai asked.

"Uh… Southwest… WAIT! Now it's South."

"Got it." Yunai turned around, and blasted herself and Todd into the sky. "Hold on!" She groaned, trying not to let all the wind get to her.

Todd watched the location distance plummet from 47 miles, to only 26 in just 5 minutes. He looked forwards, exhilarated. He'd never gone flying in human form, even if it was just Yunai holding him. He mimicked Super-Man, and started cheering.

"Todd…" Yunai said, straining. "Don't move around too much, okay, or else I'll…" Yunai accidentally let go of him, and Todd began falling to his doom. "TODD!" Yunai shrieked, watching her brother rapidly disappearing.

"Geez. Todd said, dismissively. "What's she so worried about? All I've gotta do is turn into an alien that can fly. Geez!"

Todd looked down at his Splicatrix, which was still in Location Mode. He tapped the holographic interface, but nothing happened. He searched it for a 'back' button, but he couldn't find one. He put his hand through the interface, and tried to slide on the lid, but nothing happened. He rapidly began tapping at his Splicatrix from all angles.

"Uh… HELLO?!" Todd shouted, frantically. "Can you do the whole 'Alienize' thing, already?! TODAY?!"

The ground was way to clear for him to see, and it was only getting clearer.

"Come on!" Todd begged. "Could you cancel, PLEASE?!"

The Splicatrix beeped, and the regular interface reappeared. Todd laughed happily, before dialing in an alien that looked like a scaly insect, and extremely large wings. The faceplate slid back, and Todd slammed the core back down, and emitted a flash of blue light.

()

The Splicatrix sank into Todd's skin, and his skin became overrun with navy-blue scales. His eyes became large, yellow, and pupil-less. His teeth sank into his gums, which became tough, and 4 extra legs tore out of his waist. Two large wings ripped out of Todd's back, and a large tail flew out of Todd's hips. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his left Bicep, and Todd grinned, smoke puffing out of his nostrils.

()

"DRAGONFLY!" He shouted, and flew back up to where he saw Kate still flying to the ship.

"Hey, Yunai!" DragonFly called. "What the heck?! I was almost road pizza for a sec!"

"Why?" She asked, confused. "I thought you could just go alien, and fly back up?"

"Not while I'm in navigation mode, I can't!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?!"

"Whatever." DragonFly huffed. "Let's just get to Simian's ship before it takes off, and I have to find some way to breathe in space as a human."

"Speak of the devil!" Yunai yelled, pointing to a large, black, pointed ship, with 7 extremely large thrusters on it's back. "There it is!"

"Let's get in there, and get Matheo back!" DragonFly cried, flapping his wings as fast as he could.

The twins both flew to the side of Simian's ship, which was much larger than they expected, and Yunai mutated her bottom two hands into white, furry paws, with a long, black claw on the ends of them, and she dug those claws into the side of the ship. DragonFly dug his claws into the ship as well, and they both began slowly climbing to the top of the ship.

"At least he hasn't, like, gone to HyperSpace, yet…" Yunai grunted. "Then, we'd be screwed."

"All the more reason to book it to the top…!" DragonFly strained.

Eventually, they managed to reach the top, still needing to keep their claws firmly planted in the ship's exterior, lest they go flying off into the horizon, and they both looked around for some sort of emergency hatch, but found nothing.

"Rats, no way in." Yunai groaned.

"Not yet." DragonFly smirked.

He lowered his head down, close to the top of the ship, and opened his bug-like maw, and breathed fire onto it, rotating his head in a circular formation, until the metal looked gooey, and deformed. Then, he struck it with his tail, eventually forcing it through the metal, and cut a hole in the metal, and throwing the remaining, circular chunk of metal over the side.

"Sweet!" Yunai grinned, and jumped into the ship.

DragonFly jumped in after her, and the pair both found themselves standing inside of a prison-like room with Matheo bound to the wall, looking extremely sickly. The twins rushed over to him, and started untying him.

"Matheo!" Kate shouted, and hugged him. "Glad to see you're… Uh… Kinda alright."

"Same here… Hey man, you don't look so good. Are you sick?"

"Very much so, yes." Matheo muttered. "It's the altitude. I gotta go alien, before I… Before I blackout."

"That's weird." Kate said. "I feel fine."

"Well you're not human, remember?" Matheo sneered, activating his Optitrix. "That, and you just got here."

Matheo selected an alien that was tall, and bulky, with two protrusions sticking out of his back. He slammed the core down, and there was a flash of red light.

()

Matheo's left arm began covered in hard, green diamond chunks, as well as the rest of his body. As it covered his face, the diamonds surrounded his eyes, which flipped over 180 degrees, to reveal yellow crystals. Two large, diamond spikes grew out of his backs. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his left shoulder, and he flexed.

()

"Okay, this is a new one." Matheo said. "Um, I'm thinking Diamond-Guy."

"NO WAY!" DraonFly protested. "That's obviously Refractor!"

"I really, REALLY don't care." DiamondGuy said, facepalming.

"I still don't get the whole naming thing." Yunai butted in.

"I wasn't talking to you!"

Suddenly, the triplets heard a groaning behind them, and DragonFly turned around to see Jarnet, who was laying in bed, clearly in pain. DragonFly rushed over to him and waved a hand in front of his face.

"Hey, Jarnet!" DragonFly said, excited. "It's me! Todd! Or Hyu. Whichever one works. You know, from the Gladiator thing?"

"Yes… I remember…" Jarnet coughed. "I wish I'd never listened to you."

"Huh? Why not?" DragonFly asked, confused.

"Isn't it obvious? Simian found me. He threw me in this cell, and he won't let me out. Not after my betrayal. My world is this cell, now."

"Don't worry!" DragonFly said, triumphantly. "we're gonna get you out of here, just you wait! Hey, Refr- Uh… I mean DiamondGuy! Open the door, will you?"

DiamondGuy nodded, and fashioned his hands into 2 large spikes, and cut a large hole in the jail bars, and bowed. DragonFly grinned, and helped Jarnet out of the bed.

"Come on man." DragonFly said. "You helped me, so I'm not gonna let you rot in here."

"Thanks…" Jarnet said, impressed. "I don't know how to repay you."

"You can start…" Simian's voice said. "… By getting back into your cell, as soon as possible."

"YOU." Yunai glared.

"Yes, me." Simian said, simply. "And would you look at that? You kids followed your brother all the way out here, despite the fact that you will not be being payed, AND you let out that traitor Jarnet. Wow. It's like you keep giving me the opposite of gifts. I hate it."

"You know what else you're gonna hate?" DiamondGuy growled, walking towards Simian. "What comes next if you don't turn this blasted thing around."

"Gee, as much as I wish I could…" Simian said, shrugging. "I can't. Because we're already here. At Gesmos-X."

"What's that?" DragonFly asked. "Some kind of intergalactic toothpaste?"

"It's… It's actually a desert planet." Jarnet said, quietly. "It's the largest intergalactic black market. Matheo refused to talk, so Simain figured he could find the rogue agent here…"

"Oh." DragonFly said, embarrassed. "I, uh, I knew that."

"So, before I fly you kids home out of nothing except the goodness of my heart, how's about recovering that stolen Khyber Shard?"

"You mean, the Khyber Shard YOU tried to steal from ME?" DiamondGuy said, angrily.

"Uh… Yeah." Simian gulped. "That one."

"Fine." DiamondGuy sighed. "BUT. I'm getting it for me."

"That sounds perfectly reasonable… But I should say, he's not going to be here all day, so maybe you kids should get going."

"Alrighty, then." DragonFly grinned. "Let's make this quick. I don't want to miss the new 'Lucky girl' Episode."

"I knew you watched that show!" Yunai shouted.

"Not relevant!" DragonFly yelled, before he hit the 'Open' button, and the large hangar doors slid open. "Let's go kick his butt, guys!"

The triplets charged out of the ship, and into the marketplace. They looked around, before coming to a realization.

"Hey guys?" Yunai asked. "Did we ever find out the agent's name? … Or what he looks like? … Or whether or not he's EVEN HERE?!"

"Uh-oh…" DragonFly said, and looked at Simian's ship, which had already closed, and was leaving the planet. "He tricked us!"

"I've got it!" Yunai shouted, and began to take off, before her Unitrix began beeping, and she fell onto the ground.

"Looks like it's up to me." DragonFly said sassily, and flew onto the ship's roof and then… His Splicatrix began beeping. "Oh CRAP! NOT NOW!"

There was a flash of yellow, and Todd, now human, fell out of the sky, and onto Simian's ship. He bumped into the ship's roof, and rolled down the roof, scratching at the hull, barely managing to grab onto one of the protruding spikes, dangling over the edge. He screamed, slowly losing his grip. Todd looked down, and saw Matheo put a hand on the ground, before a large diamond Hand came rising out of the ground, and grabbed this ship, stopping it from moving.

"It's… About… Time…!" Todd groaned, pulling himself on top of the protrusion, and running back to the hole in the ceiling.

He dropped back into the cell, and kicked open the door to the captain's quarters, and saw Simian trying to put the Khyber Shard into his control panel. He turned around to see Todd, glaring at him.

"Oh, hey… Todd… How are you… Uh… Doing?" He smiled, shakily.

"You LIED?! After all this?!" Todd yelled. "Seriously, why even come get us in the first place?!"

"I didn't, okay? Matheo contacted ME, saying I split his lock open, and I mean, I couldn't just ignore him, then he'd KNOW it was me!"

"You're scared of my huggable bro?!" Todd exclaimed. "Oh, that is the BEST thing I've heard all week!"

"Well…" Simian tried to change the subject. "Look, I've got the Khyber Shard, alright?! You can't do anything to stop me?!"

"Oh yeah?" Todd grinned, and pulled out a second Khyber Shard. "You sure about that?"

"WHAT?!" Simian shouted, confused. "But… How?! When?!"

"Simian, nobody trusted you from the start. So, during our conversation, in here a few minutes ago, I noticed that you had the Khyber crystal just lying around in that cabinet over there." Todd pointed to the glove compartment under the control panel. "I just took it, and replaced it with a red piece of candy. That's why it's not working, by the way."

"Oh…" Simian frowned. "I see. I guess the only way to beat a Con is to Con the Con, huh?"

"Yep. So, how about you go zoom off to some other Galaxy and never bother us again?"

Todd held both the Khyber Shard and his Splicatrix behind his back, and touched them together. The Splicatrix beeped to notify Todd it had recharged. Todd smirked, before holding up the Khyber Shard in front of his face.

"Yep. Even though you went through all this trouble, you didn't even come close to getting a hold of this thing."

"Don't be so SURE!" Simian growled, and jumped in the air, and shooting a string of webbing at Todd's hand, and yanking the crystal away from him. "Ha! Ha-ha-ha!" Simian laughed. "You foolish kid! Did you really think I'd just let you gloat like that?!"

"Yep." Todd whispered, activating the Splicatrix, and turning it to an alien with two long coils hanging off of his head. "And now, it's time to end this!"

Todd slammed the core of the Splicatrix down, and there was a flash of blue light.

()

Todd's arms became coated in a dark, rubbery, latex coating. His eyes fused together, and became a large blue eye. Two tendrils came shooting out of his head, and brass tips appeared on his fingers. An Omnitrix popped out on his chest. He shot energy beams out of his fingers, and grinned.

()

"PLUG N' PLAY!" He shouted, before he ran at Simian.

Simian's eyes widened, and he jumped out of the way, and slammed the Khyber crystal into the command panel, which began to glow with red electric sparks. DiamondGuy and Kate ran into the Captain's Quarters, and looked around in shock. DiamondGuy scowled, and shot diamond shards at Simian, who was running across the ceiling, shouting out incoherent monkey noises.

"We've gotta do something!" Kate cried, looking around in panic.

"Don't worry." PlugNPlay said, smugly. "I've got it all under control."

PlugNPlay aimed his hands at the Command Panel, and began to absorb the energy flowing through it, as Simian stopped, and glared at him. There was so much energy from the computer, that it was pushing PlugNPlay back, even as he was absorbing it, casuing him to grunt in pain. Simian jumped at PlugNPlay, before DiamondGuy moved in front of him, grabbed Simian, and threw him into the wall. PlugNPlay finished absorbing the energy, smoke sifting out of every corner of his body, before he fired it at Simian, who's eyes suddenly widened. There was a large explosion, and the ship's powers died.

"You think he's gonna be alright?!" Kate asked, as she grabbed Jarnet, and pulled him out of the ship.

"If he is, I hope he thinks twice about messing with the Omni-Triplets!" DiamondGuy cheered.

"Yeah… I actually have a name for us… You know, that isn't… That." Kate said.

"It's Omni-Triplets, Kate."

"We gotta get out of here!" PlugNPlay shouted, blasting though the ship's doors, and running outside. "Because if we don't the ship's gonna-!"

As if solely to interrupt him, Simian's ship collapsed in on itself, then exploded. Sending debris flying at them, which Matheo shielded them from with his diamonds. As he evaporated the shield, the Triplets, and Jarnet, looked at the fiery pile of destruction.

"I retract my previous statement." DiamondGuy said, surprised. "He is DEFINITLY not okay after that."

"Oof." PlugNPlay said, simply.

"Welp, that's… That, I guess. But that only leaves one problem… How do we get home?"

"Oh, don't worry about THAT detail." Jarnet said. "I have several ships on this planet, actually. We can use those to get you kids home… Uh… You kids do have licenses, right?"


	8. O8: The Rath of Maleki!

Matheo Harrison had heard just about enough of people congratulating his twin brother, Todd, for having a 'dream.' That 'dream' being for Todd to eventually become a race-car driver. Now, of course, HOW he planned to do that, Matheo had no clue. Apparently, the only way Todd knew of achieving this dream of his, was to attend every single Go-Kart race he ever heard about. Matheo and Kate also had to go with him just in case anything ended up happening, but honestly, could Matheo really be bothered to attend some stupid race, just to see his brother win 1st place AGAIN?

"No thanks…" Matheo muttered, walking around a foggy desert just outside the track, holding a shovel. "I got better things to do."

He was holding a metal detector, as well, and scanning the area around him, looking for pieces of scrap metal.

"Geez. Who's friggin' dream is to just go-karting all the time?" Matheo grumbled. "That's just plain wack."

The metal detector stopped beeping, and started to heat up, before it combusted into a hundred sparks. Matheo's jaw dropped. He yelped, and stumbled backwards.

"What the?!"

There was an ominous purple glow, careening out of the ground in front of him, and it was extremely humid around the glow as well. Matheo stood up, and cautiously moved towards the glow, before a gray, rotting hand tore itself out of the ground, and grabbed Matheo's ankle. It pulled Matheo to the ground, and towards the hole.

"Lemme go!" He yelled. "I'm not gonna check out your house party!"

Matheo grabbed the shovel, and dug it into the ground, trying to pull himself away from the arm. Instead of pulling Matheo into it, the thing used Matheo to pull _itself _out. Matheo yelled, and took the shovel back out of the ground, and smacked the creature in the head with it. The creature didn't really react, but it did let go of Matheo's ankle, allowing him to escape.

"What ARE you?!" Matheo asked, yelling. "Some kinda zombie?!"

The thing emerged into the light, allowing Matheo to see him much better. He was sort of chubby, wearing a checkered white-and-red shirt, that was stained with dirt and even a little blood. His skin was peeling, and green-ish, and one of his eyes had fallen out.

"Ugh, fine." The 'zombie' said. "No, I'm not really a zombie. I'm more of a 'ghoul.' "

"Oh… Great. Because that's SO much better." Matheo said, sarcastically.

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, my name's Mark, and I'm here to transport you and you're companions into the odd world of… Uh… What was it again…?" Mark paused for a few seconds. "OH! I remember now, it's 'Exemphria!' "

" 'The odd world of Exemphria?' " Matheo repeated. "Oh, I know that, it's a board game, right? Are you a LARP-er, or something?"

"H-huh?" Mark stuttered. "No, it's an alternate universe. Where'd you get the whole 'board game' thing from?"

"From the fact that it IS." Matheo said. "And even if the game is some kind of… I dunno, portal to an alternate universe, or something, I'm not going anywhere near it. Something tells me I'll be in the 2nd dimension, and that's not happening, pal."

"Oh… Seriously?" Mark asked, disappointed. "Well, that's a shame. I was really looking to enslaving you for the rest of time, and stuff."

"Wait, what?" Matheo asked.

"Oh yeah. Guess I kinda spoiled the twist ending there, didn't I?" Mark chuckled, and his ratty clothes transformed into a purple-and-black jumpsuit, with golden accents. "Yeah, my name's not Mark. It's actually Maleki, Enslaver of Champions, Bringer of Doom, Devourer of Expired Cereal… I'm sure you've heard of me."

"Literally ALL of that doesn't compute. Back up, dude."

"Uh, yeah, like, that's the thing, big M." Maleki said. "I don't think I will. To make a long story short, you're comin' with me."

Maleki created a large, orange orb of energy, and threw it at Matheo who deflected it into the ground with his shovel, causing it to explode. Maleki growled, and created a humongous ball of energy, and threw it at Matheo, who activated his Optitrix, and transformed into the first Alien that appeared, emitting a bright flash of red light.

()

The Optitrix sent an overwhelming electric signal throughout Matheo's body, causing it to malform, and become nothing more than a ball of blue gas. Suddenly, 4 tentacles smashed through the ball, and two green eyes opened towards the top, and an Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest.

()

"ELECTRIC GUY!" He yelled, before becoming intangible, and flying inside of the projectile thrown at him.

Once he was inside, ElectricGuy became tangible again, and blew up the projectile up from the inside. He glared at Maleki, who was staring at him, surprised.

"You're not gonna take me _anywhere_." ElectricGuy said, simply. "But I'll offer to take YOU somewhere… The hospital!"

ElectricGuy flew towards Maleki, extended, then wrapped his tentacles around him, and electrified them, frying Maleki in the process. Maleki didn't react, though, and grabbed the tentacles, unwrapped them from himself, and threw ElectricGuy into the sky, before teleporting away.

()

ElectricGuy tried to fly, but the velocity was too great to accomplish anything, and he landed in a massive dust explosion right outside of the go-kart stadium. He lifted his head out of the sand, and looked at the stadium. When he did, ElectricGuy's eyes widened.

"Todd and Kate…" ElectricGuy whispered, becoming intangible, and flying through the doors. "They'll help me, I hope."

The announcer's words boomed over the radio: "And, in just a single moment, the final race of the season will begin! Speaking of the season, our top racer, Todd Harrison, has won 10 races so far! However, those were just local competitions! Will our golden boy be able to win the season, once and for all, or is he all talk?!"

ElectricGuy honestly just couldn't care less, so he flew inside of the main loudspeaker, became tangible, causing it to explode, and became intangible once again to resume flying over to Todd. He found both Todd and Kate, over at the starting line, Todd tuning up his Go-Kart, and Kate telling him details she found about the course.

"Finally!" ElectricGuy said. "Now, hopefully, I can make it, before-!"

"On your marks!" The announcer's voice boomed, albeit a little quieter.

"Wait, no!" ElectricGuy cried, trying to reach Todd before he took off. "Not yet!"

But it was too late. The Go-Karts all took off, leaving a large cloud of dust behind them. ElectricGuy grimaced, and flew over to Kate, who was outfitted in racing gear, and tapped her shoulder.

"Huh?" Kate asked, looking around. "Who did that?"

Electricguy's head appeared, startling Kate.

"Kate, listen!" He said. "Look, we've got a situation with some ghoul-emperor who wants to trap all 3 of us eternally in some board game! You need to go change into your Yunai costume, ASAP!"

"I can't!" Kate said, sternly. "It's still in the van! And besides, I'm Todd's driving coach. I can't just bail!"

"Okay, fine. I'll just go talk to Todd." He said, flying off.

Kate said nothing, because she couldn't look like she was talking to herself, but she knew this wasn't going to end well.

()

Todd was doing his best, but he was falling behind the other components. Maybe his engine wasn't good enough, or the tire treads were too worn, or maybe he'd just lost his touch. Whatever the reason, for the first time in years, Todd was going to lose a Go-Kart match. And, of course, it definitely wasn't going to help when ElectricGuy began flying next to Todd, trying to have a conversation, but it's not like he had a choice.

"TODD!" ElectricGuy shouted, now turning tangible. "TODD, WE HAVE A SITUA-! OW!"

A Go-Kart driver drove into ElectricGuy, knocking him high into the air. He readjusted himself, and glared at Todd. ElectricGuy went back to trying to catch up with Todd, before the ground underneath the track began to crack, and glow purple.

"Uh-oh…" ElectricGuy said, quietly. "Looks like Maleki's not leaving me alone…"

He turned, and saw Kate turning and running out of the track, and into the bathrooms. ElectricGuy smirked. At least Kate wasn't being stupid right now, which was always useful. ElectricGuy flew back to Todd's side, and got an idea. He zapped as much electricity into the kart as he could, and hoped the overcharge would stop it in it's tracks.

It didn't.

"OH SHIZA!" Todd screamed, as the car sped off, at what must have been 200 miles per hour.

"Oh, nuts." ElectricGuy deadpanned, and flew after him.

The ground was still rising, and breaking apart, and a ghoul crawled out of the ground, and glared at the Go-Karts, before Todd ran over him, a couple seconds later. Todd was trying to unbuckle his seatbelt, but the overcharge had melted it in place. Todd looked back up at the road, and saw that he was speeding for the mountain of displaced ground, and very quickly.

"Okay…" Todd muttered, panicked. "If the cars going to fast, then hopefully someone here knows how to fix it…"

Todd's Splicatrix was activated, and he scrolled through it, before selecting GreyMatter, raising the core up, and slamming it down, emitting a flash of blue light.

()

Todd's arms became covered with orange and white fur, while 2 curved, black claws shot out of both his hands. Todd's stomach became covered with white fur, and a thick, spring-like tail popped out of his hips. Two elongated eyebrows appeared on his face, and he gained a wide snout. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he roared, furiously.

()

"RA-A-ATH!" He screamed, before looking at his Go-Kart. "LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING, CHINESE GO-KART DESIGNING COMPANY, FAST-TRACK, YOU MAY HAVE MADE YOUR DARN KARTS TOO SMALL FOR RATH, BUT NOTHING STOPS RATH, NOT EVEN RATH!"

Rath sliced his seatbelt in half, and jumped out of the seat, before grabbing the go-kart, and throwing it into the mountain causing it to explode. He landed on the ground, cracking it even more. Rath turned, around, and saw the crowd of ghouls lumbering towards him, and roared, before he proceeded to run at them, on all fours. He charged into the crowd, and grabbed two of them, swinging them around like nun-chucks, and using them to smack the other ghouls into the sides of the stand. The audience began cheering for him.

"PUT A SOCK IN IT!" Rath screamed, and the audience shut up. "CAN'T YOU LAUGHING LARRYS PERCIEVE, THAT RATH IS TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM ZOMBIES?! RATH, IS A VERY EASILY DISTRACTED CAT!"

Yunai ran out of the bathroom, and saw Rath swinging away at the ghouls, and groaned. She grew two, long stalks out of her back, and grappled them around two lampposts, and slung herself over to Rath, and mutated her legs into giant, iron blocks, landing swiftly in the middle of the crowd of ghouls, the shockwave generated from this being enough to clear out the ghouls immensely.

"Hey Hyu?!" Yunai asked, delivering a roundhouse kick to the face of a ghoul. "How's it hanging?"

"DO NOT COMPARE RATH TO THAT SMELLY HYU KID EVER AGAIN!" Rath shouted, stomping on a ghoul's toe, before headbutting it back, several feet. "RATH IS RATH! NOT HYU, OR A MONKEY WHO LIKES TO HANG, YO!"

"Okay…" Yunai said, a little confused. "Well, call yourself whatever you like, just don't call yourself late for dinner, AmIRite…?"

"RATH DOESN'T EAT DINNER WITH HUMANS! … MAINLY BECAUSE THE FOOD TASTES LIKE GYM SOCKS!"

"…Wait, really?" Yunai asked, suplexing a ghoul into the ground. "Is my cooking really THAT bad?"

The ground suddenly lit up, and Rath grabbed Kate, and jumped up, on to the grassy part of the track. Blue electricity filled the entire track, and electrified the ghouls, and ElectricGuy confidently floated up, out of the ground. Rath and Yunai ran over to him.

"LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING, BLUE ALIEN SQUID THING WHOM I BELIEVE TO BE MY BROTHER, MAINLY DUE TO THE SYMBOL ON YOUR CHEST, RATH FORBIDS YOU FROM ELECTROCUTING GO-KART RACING GROUNDS ANY FURTHER, **DUE TO HOW MUCH IT DAMAGES THEM**!"

"Okay, Alright, Geez!" ElectricGuy said, pushing Rath out of his face. "I think Todd just unlocked AngryGuy."

"I'd call him hairball." Yunai snickered.

"RATH IS NO HAIRBALL!" Rath shouted. "HAIRBALLS FEAR RATH!"

"Yeah, we get it, dude!" ElectricGuy yelled, glaring at him.

"Uh… Yeah. Sorry." Rath said, quietly.

"Wow." Yunai was surprised. "I… Uh… I didn't know you could get him to stop yelling."

"Well, now…" Maleki appeared behind them, and the Omni-Triplets jumped back, startled. "Looks like you guys were able to take out my Ghoul horde. Impressive. I do believe I underestimated you kids."

"Lemme tell you something…" Rath growled. " 'Maleki,' which I presume is your name, since it's written on your shirt, You've got a lot of nerve, ruining Todd's go-kart game! That's not cool, man!" Rath began running at Maleki. "IN FACT, DUDE, IT'S SO NOT COOL, IT'S HOT! AND GUESS WHAT, JACK?! IT'S SO HOT, I USE THAT ACTION TO SOMEHOW FRY EGGS ON THE SIDEWALK!"

Rath jumped into the air, and punched at Maleki, missing, and faceplanting into the ground. Yunai sighed, and mutated her arms into large, golden battering rams, before jumping at Maleki, and hitting him square in the jaw, then again in his stomach, before Maleki uttered a spell, and forced Yunai to disappear from existence.

"GAH!" Rath shouted from behind Maleki. "LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING MALEKI, KIDNAPPING CHILDREN IS ILLEGAL IN ALL 27 STATES IN THE UNITED STATES! SO THAT MEANS, FOR YOU KIDDOS OUT THERE, YOU'VE GOT THE SENTENCE FOR KIDNAPPING, TIMES 27! **THAT'S A LOT OF TIME, BRO**!"

"I grow tired of your shouting." Melki said simply, before grabbing Rath's face, and throwing him into the ground. "Take a nap. The adults are talking."

Maleki turned back to ElectricGuy, more annoyed than anything else. "Are they ALWAYS like that?"

"Oh, you've got no idea." ElectricGuy replied, grimacing. "But that's not a reason for you to take 'em off my hands."

"Oh, I'm not taking them from you. Don't you remember? You're all going to my universe. To entertain me. Forever."

ElectricGuy glared, before he slapped the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, and emitted a flash of red light.

()

ElectricGuy's eyes grew to three times their original size, and turned yellow, and his tentacles became coated in metal. Lastly, four spikes grew out of the symbol, resembling the letter 'X.' Optimal ElectricGuy flew around in a circle, before flying back onto the ground, cracking it.

()

The light faded, and Maleki looked around in confusion. ElectricGuy had disappeared. Maleki was definitely confused, but he tried not to let it get to him. He began looking for ElectricGuy, before he heard his voice behind him.

"HEY, LAME-GAMER!" He called, and Maleki turned around, to see Optimized ElectricGuy telekinetically using electricity to lift 3 go-karts in the air. "You're overdue… FOR A TUNE-UP!"

Optimized ElectricGuy threw the cars into Maleki, causing a massive explosion, and leaving behind a huge crater as well.

"And that takes care of that… Wait." Optimized ElectricGuy saw 5 orange orbs hovering around him, and powering up. "Oh, shoot!"

The beams exploded, and he blacked out.

()

When he awoke, he was sitting in a blue cell, re-humanized, next to Todd and Kate, both of whom were still just starting to wake up. Matheo kicked at the bar, and he immediately recoiled from the pain, as the bars were made from an electricity-metal hybrid, which hurt to touch. Even the floor kind of hurt to sit on.

"What… Happened?" Kate asked, shaking her head.

"Whatever happened, it sure hurt like heck."

"You guys." Matheo said, annoyed. "It was obviously that Maleki guy. He was talking about enslaving us for eternity. He must have succeeded."

" 'Maleki Guy…' " Todd snickered. "Hey, that rhymes."

"SERIOUSLY, DIPSHIT, HOW IS THAT YOUR FIRST CONCERN?!" Matheo exploded at him, and both Todd and Kate gasped.

"Matthias…" Kate said, hurt.

She used his full name. Nobody ever used that before. Matheo knew he hurt them, but…

"Well, it's true." Matheo shook his head. "We're in a bad situation here, and we're never gonna get out, and what is this guy saying? 'Oh, well, y'know, that rhymes, hurr durr…' I mean, are you for real?"

"But, still… You shouldn't be saying that, especially not to your brother…" Kate said, softly.

"Tough." Matheo said, simply. "People say that stuff all the time in the real world. You guys need to grow up, and quit being kids."

Kate sighed. "You know what? If growing up means being a jerk to your own family, count me out."

Todd didn't say anything. He only stared at Matheo, before turning to the wall of the cage. Nobody said a word. There was only silence, and discomfort in the air. Matheo looked back at his siblings, and groaned. The longer he stood still in that cage, the more his words began to hang in the air. He hadn't thought about what he said, not at all… No, he had. That was what made it hurt all the more. Matheo meant every word of it. He looked at the cage, before he saw Maleki, levitating in midair, staring at them, engrossed.

"What do you want?" Matheo asked, blankly.

"Well, I was looking forward to putting you guys into my simulated environment below you, so you could play out every scenario I make up on a whim to entertain me, but this drama you're showcasing has turned out to be far more engrossing."

"Yeah." Matheo sighed. "I guess that's all I'm good for, huh? Starting drama?"

"You can say that again!" Maleki said, gleefully. "If you weren't a part of the team, it seems like everyone would get along well, just fine without you!"

Matheo's eyes lit up at that statement. Was that… True? Was he really ONLY good for dragging Todd and Kate down? Was he… Was Matheo the weak link of the team…?

"No…" Matheo scowled. "I ain't no weak link. I'm the glue that holds everyone together!"

"Well, that's not only lame, it's also not true." Maleki retorted, uninterested.

Matheo looked at the bars of the cage. To simulate jail bars, the actual iron parts needed to be extremely thin, with thick electricity around them. Matheo grimaced. If he was gonna get out of here, he would need to bend the electrified bars, as a HUMAN. He could do it, but it was going to hurt, really badly. But Matheo didn't care about that. He stuck his hands into the blue mist, and immediately felt hundreds of watts of energy, all running into his body, and shocking him.

"GAH!" Matheo shrieked, but didn't let himself pull away.

Maleki watched, suddenly extremely invested. Matheo was able to snap the bars in half, barely, which stopped the energy from passing through them. Once the surge stopped, he collapsed on the floor, his arms blackened, and torn up. His bones were visible, and his flesh was somehow still in one piece, though parts of it were peeling off. Thankfully, the energy had overridden the Optitrix's time-out feature, so Matheo activated it, and selected the big, four-armed alien. He pressed the core down, and was consumed by red.

()

Veins shot out of the Optitrix, and into Matheo's body, running into his eyes, which were both split in two, and turned orange. Two extra arms shot out of his abdomen, and his hair was turned into a dark line, which ran down his neck. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he flexed his large, muscular arms.

()

"ArmsGuy!" He yelled, bursting through the smoke, and jumping onto Maleki, punching him, and sending him in to the ground.

ArmsGuy knew Todd and Kate were still stuck in the cage, since their Omnitrixes hadn't recharged, yet, so it was only him here. Maleki picked himself off the ground, and put his hand on the ground, causing stacks of earth to shoot out of the ground, and at ArmsGuy. He smirked, and pulled a stack out of the ground, and used it to demolish the other stacks, creating a large cloud of dust.

"Agh!" Maleki coughed. "Ugh… Cut it out, Matheo. This is my domain! You are at an extreme disadvantage, or to say, you will be killed if you keep this up any longer!"

ArmsGuy had run off to the side of the arena, under the cover of the dust cloud, and tore a palm tree from the ground, before he ran back at Maleki, and used it hit him in the stomach. Maleki tumbled to the ground, before using his telekinesis to steal the tree from ArmsGuy, and threw it back at him, hitting his face.

"Ow!" ArmsGuy grunted, dropping to his knees.

He looked up to see Maleki staring at him, who grabbed his neck, and lifted ArmsGuy into the air, and grinned maniacally.

"I told you…" Maleki said, in pain. "You don't mess with me… And get away with it."

He smashed ArmsGuy into the ground, before he was stopped by Kate, who was floating down, and shooting Maleki with slimeballs, before Todd jumped off of her, and activated his Splicatrix in mid-air, and selecting a flat-looking alien, and slamming the core down, emitting a bright explosion of blue light.

()

The Splicatrix transformed itself into a black-and white drawing on Todd's arm, which consumed the rest of his body with paper. Once he was fully consumed, his body became flattened, and his head became rectangular. A mouth, and scribbly eyes were drawn on his face, as well as a semblance of an outfit on his body, and finally, an Omnitrix symbol on his chest. Todd transformed his hands into hammers, and grinned.

()

"PAPERCUT!" He yelled, and turned himself into a large rope, and wrapped himself around Maleki's neck, attached himself to the ground, reinforced himself, and finally pulled Maleki face into the dirt.

Kate landed next to ArmsGuy, and helped him out. She smirked at him.

"You guys…" He said, breathlessly. "You came to help me… Even after what I said…"

"Save it, dude." Kate said, sternly. "You can be a real jerk sometimes, but I think deep-frying yourself is more than enough of an apology."

ArmsGuy grinned. "Gotcha. Now, you ready take this dude out?"

"Let's do this." Kate smirked, mutating her arms into large, muscular, plant-like limbs.

ArmsGuy ran to Maleki, and threw him into the air, while Kate untangled her arms, and grabbed Maleki out of the air, before tightening her grip to the point where his face turned purple, and threw him into the ground, before PaperCut created a Paper-Restraining Plate, to hold Maleki down.

"Okay, Mr. Game-maker." ArmsGuy said, his foot on Maleki's chest. "Get us out of here, before things get ugly. That's the deal."

"I'd listen to big, strong, and ugly over here." Kate said, glaring at him.

Maleki looked at both of them, while ArmsGuy cracked his knuckles. Twice. Maleki's face grew panicked.

"OK, OK!" He shouted, squirming, and sweating. "I'll let you guys out, just don't hurt me!"

"Whatever you say, chief!" Paper Cut said.

Maleki closed his eyes, and a second later, a portal appeared.

"Okay, alright." He said, quickly. "There's your precious portal, now please, just leave! I even made sure it'll close on it's own, in like, 30 seconds, so hurry out, please!"

"You got it, chief!" PaperCut said.

PaperCut separated himself from the restrainer that was keeping Maleki in place, and left for the portal.

"HEY, WAIT!" Maleki yelled, shaking his head. "You guys forgot to let me out!"

"Oh, I didn't forget!" PaperCut smirked. "You just need some time to think about what you did!"

"That wasn't the deal!" Maleki yelled, before he stopped, and thought for a second. "…At least, I don't THINK it was…"

()

As the triplets jumped out of the portal, and landed back outside the stadium, they each breathed a sigh of relief.

"That all ended, pretty alright, I guess." Kate said.

"You can say that again." Arms Guy said, before he sighed. "Look, about what I said in the cage, Todd… I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

PaperCut stared at him, before hugging him, then laughing. "Come on, dude. I'm not some bitter old man. Like I'm gonna hold grudges against you, or something."

"That's good." ArmsGuy said, relieved. "And for what it's worth… I'm glad we're still kids."

"Me too, pal." PaperCut smiled. "Come on, let's go home."


	9. O9: Double Trouble!

Kate Harrison wasn't what you'd call 'good with history.' In fact, you'd probably be better off calling her bad at it. She'd bombed her last 6 assignments, and 2 tests, so her grade in math class was a D-average, and teetering on an 'F.' Mr. Shomlok walked over to her desk, where she was chatting with her friends, about how the new Lucky Girl movie was doomed to fail, when he tapped Kate on her shoulder.

"Yeah?" Kate asked, then turned around to see an angry Mr. Shomlok, arms crossed, glaring at her. "Oh… Hi."

"Hello, indeed, Katherine." He scowled, reading over his clipboard.

"Oooh…" Nelsie snickered.

"Somebody's in tro-o-ouble…" Margot smirked.

"Guys, shh!" Kate shushed.

"No, no…" Mr. Shomlok said, simply. "You are certainly 'in trouble,' young lady."

"Oh boy." Kate gulped.

"You've been practically ignoring this class for the past 3 weeks, always chattering to your friends, or texting your friends, or just doodling in your notebook. And yet, with all this free time, you still haven't decided to try and pay any attention in class."

"I have!" Kate said, defensively. "It just doesn't look like it!"

"Oh, _really_?" Shomlok narrowed his eyes. "Where are your research documents, essay, and presentation on World War I, hm?"

"Uh… My brothers ate them…?" Kate grinned, sheepishly.

"Well, then, Katherine, since I'm in a generous mood, I'll let you make up the presentation."

"Wait, really?!" Kate asked, shocked. "No tricks?"

"Why… Why would I try and trick you?"

"Well, thanks!" Kate said, grinning. "And I'll make sure my brothers don't eat it this time! Definitely!"

"Wait, were you being serious about the whole 'eating thing?' "

"No time to talk, mister!" Kate said, gleefully. "Gotta work!"

"Right." Shomlok said, nodding, and walking away.

"Well, I'll be." Margot said, smirking. "I've been coming to this school for 5 years now, and I ain't NEVER heard of Mr. Shomlok letting someone off the hook like that."

"For now…" Kate groaned, and dropped her head on the desk. "But, when I inevitably fail to get this project out, and Shomlok comes back, he's probably gonna throw me in the clink."

"Please tell me you didn't just say the word 'clink,' to refer to detention, Katie." Margot frowned.

"I'll refer to it however I like."

That was when she got an idea. True, she might not be smart enough to complete the paper, but she knew someone who WAS. Kate grinned evilly.

"Oh boy." Nelsie said. "I don't like it when she gets THAT look in her eyes…"

()

Later at recess, Matheo was sitting alone at the end of his lunch table watching videos on his phone, when Kate sat next to him, and waited for him to respond. Matheo didn't react, at all. Kate groaned, and waved her hand in his face. When that didn't work, Kate yanked his headphones out of his ears, causing him to yelp.

"HEY!" Matheo yelped, rubbing his ears. "Kate? What was that for?!"

"I need your help with something." Kate whispered. "I need to do an assignment on World War I. Hopefully you can help me out."

Matheo was about to say something, but he stopped himself, nodded his head a couple of times, and looked back to Kate.

"Okay…" Matheo said, slowly. "You need info on the ''War to end all Wars,' right?"

"Uh… No. I actually need info on WWI?"

"IT'S THE SAME THING!" Matheo yelled, before composing himself. "Sorry."

"No sweat." Kate said. "So, what's your brilliant plan to make me a WWI expert?"

"Oh, you'll see…" Matheo rubbed his hands together. "You will see…"

"It's a time machine isn't it?" Kate asked, unimpressed.

"What? No." Matheo shook his head. "Time can't just be harnessed all willy nilly. To harness something requires time, practice, and rock-solid dedication."

"... All of which being things you DON'T have?"

"No, I HAVE them, just… Just wait, and see, okay?"

"Alright…"

()

"You guys are making a time machine to go back to WWI?!" Todd asked, in utter disbelief. "I wanna come!"

"Sorry, Todd." Matheo sighed. "This is kinda a 'Kate-only' thing."

"But why?!" Todd whined. "I wanna go back in time! Pretty, pretty please?"

"Let him come along, Mo." Kate said.

"Whatever." Matheo rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I'm definitely staying here. Somebody needs to bring you guys back, and I'm _obviously_ the only candidate."

"But… Can't you just put that function on a timer?" Todd asked.

They both stared at him, their jaws dropped to the ground.

"Did… Did Todd just say something smart?" Kate asked, floored.

"Yeah. I think he did." Matheo said, impressed. "But… Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Sorry guys, I'm gonna have to stay behind."

"You can't, like add it in?"

"No! Now stop asking, or I'll shut this whole thing down completely, and laugh at you when you get put in Summer School!" Matheo shouted.

Kate gulped. Summer School? She hadn't even considered that. Nobody would ever want to hang out with her again if she turned out to be some dumb girl. Not her friends, or some… Boy. Kate became uncomfortable thinking about herself dating a boy, but she just…She didn't get it. Maybe she wasn't old enough, maybe it's the fact that she had 2 brothers, who knows… And who cares?

"Kate." Todd pulled her aside. "I think Mo's planning something."

"What makes you say that…?" Kate asked, worried.

"Well, just look at the guy. He can't wait for us to jump into the machine, and get teleported to… I dunno, the Heat Death of the Universe, I guess."

"I don't… THINK he'd do that." Kate looked back at Matheo, who was staring at them impatiently. "At least, I hope he won't."

"Are you guys coming?!" Matheo shouted at them.

"Not unless you're coming with us!" Todd said back.

"Then forget it. So much for traveling thr-UMPH" Matheo was interrupted by bumping into a large man, in a large trenchcoat, and a scar on his face. "L-Legladon?!" Matheo asked, startled.

"Hey Matt. Been a while, ain't it?" Legladon helped Matheo up. "What was it again…? Oh yeah. You were hacking that weird thing on your arm. How'd that turn out, by the way?"

Matheo gave Legladon a deadly stare. "... It went… Exactly as you said it would. How… How'd you know that?"

"Excuse me, ex-boss, but I never said anything, except 'Hi,' and 'Be careful.' It ain't my fault you decided to go along with it anyway."

"Oh… Right." Matheo facepalmed. "Ha-ha. Man, how'd I screw that up?"

"Uh, Mo…?" Kate asked, confused. "Who's this guy?"

"Oh, yeah." Matheo pointed at Legladon. "Todd, Kate, this is Legladon. The only guy I know that scammed the entire state of Kentucky into believing they were gonna implode from the inside… Or something like that."

"Wow." Todd said, skeptically. "Care to spill the details?"

"No time." Legladon said, shaking his head, before grabbing Matheo, and throwing him onto the time pad. "New boss actually sent me out here for a reason. To kill you."

"Hey!" Kate yelled, jumping at Legladon. "Nobody does that to my bro!"

Legladon only grabbed her out of the air, and Todd as well, flinging them both onto the time pad as well. He then pressed large yellow button, labeled 'encase,' and a large, thick glass tube fell down around them, and sealed itself to the ground.

"Why Leg?!" Matheo banged on the glass. "Why would you do this?! I thought we were friends!"

"I know, dude." Legladon shook his head. "But sometimes, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do. I need this money to pay off my debts to some pretty bad guys."

"You're not gonna get away with this…" Kate growled at Legladon. "We're the Omni-Triplets, and we're gonna find some way out of this, and kick our heinie into next week!"

" 'Henie?' " Todd asked, confused.

"Now let's see here…" Legladon scanned the console. "In every time movie I've ever seen, when the heroes meet their younger selves, they cause a time-implosion, and fade out of existence… Yeah… Let's go with that."

"Legladon, STOP!" Matheo cried, but it was too late.

The tube lit up with a purple vortex, and the triplets were sucked inside in seconds, and the very next second, the tube was filled with smoke. Legladon grinned. His work was done. He took a walkie-talkie out of his pocket, and started talking into it.

"Carson? Yeah, it's me, Leggy." He said, watching the smoke begin to dissolve, revealing only the empty space of the tube. "The Harrison triplets, namely Matheo, have all been disposed of. Reporting back to you."

()

The triplets were teleported a few meters above a sidewalk, and all fell on top of one another. An old lady walking her dog saw all of this, and ran off screaming, dragging her barking chihuahua away with her. A taxi cab also swerved to a stop, and the cars behind him had to frantically dodge to the side to avoid getting into a wreck.

"Get… OFF of me…" Kate groaned, pushing Matheo down the pile, then getting off of

Todd.

'You guys, I think that time-portal made me kind of sick…" Todd mumbled, before sneezing.

"No way" Matheo said, getting up and rolling his eyes at the same time… Somehow. "Time travel doesn't take a physical toll on the user's health, that's poppycock."

"Well, I AM." Todd sniffed. "So, rewrite your… Equation, or whatever."

"Hypothesis, actually."

"Guys, cut it out." Kate said looking around. "According to this sign, we're on Hopenorth lane, but I can't find our house anywhere…"

Since their parents had both been missing since they were toddlers, the Harrison Household was an absolute mess on the outside, (Though it was actually quite clean on the inside) The paint was peeling all over, there were plenty of holes in the fence that needed to be messily fixed, and half of the windows were cracked. However, every house here looked good as new, even though, according to their address…

"... We should be standing right in front of it." Kate said, looking at a bright blue house, which looked like it'd just finished construction.

"Maybe in the past, we had a different house?" Matheo asked, crossing his arms.

"No. This is it." Todd pointed at the house. "Look. Even though it's in way better condition… *A-CHOO!* … Ugh, sorry… I mean, it's still the same build, practically identical but just a different coat of paint."

"There's only one way to find out, then." Matheo walked up to the door, before Kate grabbed his arm.

"WHAT are you doing?" She asked, staring at him. "Do you want to get us to cease to exist?"

"Relax, Katie-poo." Matheo said, smugly. "I programmed the machine to send us to an alternate universe. If we interact with 'ourselves,' we'll be fine."

"Are you sure…?" Todd asked, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

"Uh, yeah." Matheo said. "I built it. I know what I'm talking about. Besides, it's not too far from our universe event wise, so what's the worst that could happen?"

Matheo rang the doorbell, and was immediately shocked to see a 7-year-old version of himself, opening the door, and wearing… His very own Optitrix.

"What the…?" Todd said, extremely creeped out.

"Wait, I thought you guys got those watches, like 3 weeks ago! Why are you wearing one when your 5?!"

"OHMYGOSH!" The young Matheo shouted, and pulled the triplets inside. "It's me from the future! Come in, come in! We've got so much stuff to talk about!"

"Pushy little guy, isn't he?" Todd joked, before they both saw a younger Kate staring at them, from the kitchen.

Present Kate walked over to her, but Young Kate jumped out of her chair, and ran into the backyard. Todd walked next to Present Kate, scratching his head.

"Uh… Guess you were super-shy, here, huh?" Todd asked, baffled. "I wonder what past me's like."

"Who are you guys?" They heard a small voice say from behind them.

Present Todd and Kate both turned around to see Young Todd, twirling a yo-yo, leaning against a corner, and staring at them. He was also wearing his own Splicatrix.

"I'm you, but 6 years older." Present Todd said, shrugging. "Well, not really. We're also from another dimension."

"Yeah…" Young Todd rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"You're pretty calm about all this." Present Todd noted.

"Unnaturally so?" Past Todd finished. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Young Todd walked over to the seat with the Matheo's, and Present Todd shrugged, following him. Present Kate sighed, but saw her younger self staring at her, now directly in front of her. Present Kate raised her hand, slowly, and waved to her.

"Hey there, lil' guy.'' Present Kate said, kneeling down to her. "Nice to meet you. I'm from the future."

"Uh-huh." Past Kate said, quietly. "... Hey, 'me,' can I ask a question?"

"Uh, yeah! Shoot!" Present Kate said, trying to seem confident, and not completely weirded out.

"I guess I just wanna know why you decided to come back? Y'know, to this point in time… It's just that… I don't… Really like it here, right now, anyway."

"Oh…" Present Kate put her hand. "Look, I… I don't know, I guess. We were trying to go back in time, to World War I, to learn about it for a paper I was gonna do, but… A bad man hi-jacked the console, and now we're stuck here."

"You don't have to talk down to me!" Past Kate protested. "I'm not a baby! I'm actually 7, y'know!"

"Good for you! Really!"

"Whatever! ... One more thing, did you really need to go back in time to do some old paper?" Past Kate looked at her.

Present Kate was taken aback. "... What…?"

"Nevermind. I guess you're just... How do I put this? ... Dumb? Maybe that's why you can't just do a little research like everyone else."

Past Kate walked away from Present Kate, and sat down on the sofa, next to everyone else. Present Kate stood still for a while, but eventually followed her. Everyone was talking about the Matheo's both teaming-up, and making another time-machine.

"But if we're gonna do that…" Past Todd asked. "Aren't we gonna need like, a gazillion watts of energy, or something?"

"Easy." Present Matheo held up the Optitrix. "We'll just use these."

"Oh, yeah." Past Kate rolled her eyes. "Cause, ya'know, every time you incorporate the Optitrix into an invention it just goes SO well."

"Nope, this time, we'll take advantage of the Omnitrixes's strangest property." Past Matheo grinned. "I call it the 'Infinity Component.' Despite the fact that our transformations are on a timer, I've actually found that it's rarely due to power. In fact, the Omnitrixes actually recycle power, from an already extremely energetic power source."

"In short," Present Matheo finished. "Our Omnitrixes actually run on infinite power, so they quite literally make the perfect power sources."

"Brilliant, as always, Matheo." Present Todd complimented him.

"briLlIaNt, aS aLwAYs, MaTHeO." Past Todd mimicked.

"Hey, come on guys, are we gonna go, or what?" Present Kate asked, and they all walked into the lab.

()

Within a few hours, the time machine was finished. And all that was left was to power it. The Matheos had constructed a four-way power siphoner that would absorb the energy from their Omnitrixes, and use that to power the time machine. The Todds and Matheos stood around the siphoner, and looked at each other, before nodding, and strapping their Omnitrixes to the batteries, and present Kate sighed with boredom, before pulling a switch, and the machine began siphoning power from the Omnitrixes.

"So." Young Kate asked, staring at her future self. "What're you gonna do when you get home?"

"You know, I don't remember being this much of a self-righteous, self-absorbed, pretentious JERK when I was 7."

"Because we're not actually the same person. But I asked you a question."

"Well, I'm gonna make sure the time machine works CORRECTLY this time, and get my data for that WWI presentation. It's not gonna write itself, You know."

Young Kate stared at her. "So, you didn't listen, huh?"

"No, and you know why?" Present Kate asked, seriously annoyed. "It's because kids are seen and not heard. So why don't you take your weird, wrong, 'work harder to get better' advice, and stick it where the sun don't shine, huh, girlie?"

"Wow." Past Kate sighed. "No wonder your brothers don't like you. You're a big, fat, lazy JERK!"

The Kates stared at each other, before there was a large blast from the machine, and they looked to their right. A giant, purple fuzzy hand had torn it's way out of the computer screen, and the rest of it was climbing out too, moaning in agony. The Kates looked at each other, and both mutated their arms into four, muscular, red arms.

"Time to alienize!" Past Todd shouted, before he looked at his Splicatrix, which was out of power. "Uh-oh."

"You guys! Present Matheo yelled. "I can't go alien!"

"But we can!" The Kates yelled, and ran at the energy guy. Past Kate ran over to loose metal on the ground, bent them into gloves, and threw them to Present Kate. "Here!" She yelled.

"Gotcha!" Present Kate shouted, jumping into the air, and slipping on the gloves before she realized what was happening.

The punch she landed electrocuted her, and she was sent flying into the wall on the other side of the lab, creating a giant cloud of smoke around her.

"You really ARE dumb!" Past Kate yelled, laughing.

"You could have KILLED me!" Present Kate yelled, falling from the wall.

"I think we should get to cover." Past Todd suggested.

"I concur!" Present Matheo yelled, and they ducked behind a desk.

"You're such a little piece of work!" Present Kate shouted, glaring at her younger self.

"And you're an idiot!" Past Kate stuck out her tongue. "It all evens out in the end!"

"You want smart, huh?!" Present Kate yelled, mutating her arms into black arms, with copper holes at the fingertips. "I'll give you smart!"

She absorbed the monster energy, and the monster itself, and fired it back at the exposed circuit board on the side of the machine, causing it to whirr to life. Present Kate transformed her arms back to human, and Past Kate walked over to her.

"Listen, me, for once!" She said. "You're not gonna get nothing done by cheating. You're not gonna get smart by cheating! If you wanna stay out of detention, Summer School, wherever, you've gotta do the work! Geez!"

"... Ugh." Present Kate shook her head. "Okay. You're right. Cheating might get me out of the clink for now, but I'll only end up in the same situation later. That's… Really good advice, especially from a 7-year-old."

" 'The Clink?' Really?" Present Todd asked, walking over to the Kates.

"Oh, put a sock in it." Present Kate said.

"Hey, I'm you." Past Kate said, shrugging. "I had to learn that lesson once or twice, myself."

"Well, you guys fixed the time machine, so I guess we can go home, huh?" Present Todd asked.

"Yup." Past Matheo said.

As the triplets lined up to return to their normal time, Present Kate's face lit up, as if he'd just remembered something.

"Oh yeah!" She said. "I was curious… How DID you guys get your Omnitrixes in this universe, anyways?"

Matheo looked at her. "We… Were born with them, dude. Just like you?"

Kate nodded, slowly. "Uh… Yeah. Let's go with that."

Kate waved goodbye to the young Triplets, silently chewing on the new information she'd been given.

()

The next day, Kate was in History class, presenting on World War I, as well as it's aftermath, and the people involved in it. When she finished, everyone in class clapped for her, and she took a bow, and walked back to her desk with her friends, as Mr. Shomlok gave her an approving nod.

"Well, well." Margot said, smiling at her friend. "Great work, girl!"

"Yeah, you really pulled through Kate!" Nelsie congratulated her. "We really didn't expect you to finish it!"

"I certainly didn't care." Lebana said, gruffly.

Kate felt extremely bad, all of a sudden. "Lebana…"

"Oh, I'm sorry?" Lebana asked, annoyed. "I don't remember asking you."

Kate was stunned, but smiled, sadly.

"Ignore her." Nelsie said, supportively. "Kate, you really did do a good job."

"Thanks, girls." Kate grinned, cheesily. "I guess you could say, I really HELPED MYSELF, out of that one, huh?"

"I… Guess?" Margot said halfheartedly, before the girls all burst out laughing, except Lebana, who just scoffed.

**(Author's Note: Hey, guys. Sorry for the lack of action in this chapter, I was just working on a different computer, with a way less responsive keyboard, and didn't want the action to get confusing, so kept it at a minimum. So, once again, sorry if this one was a bit boring. =/)**


	10. O10: Sick Day

Todd Harrison had been battling a nasty cold for the past day and a half, due to his jumping through time portals… Twice. He'd been holed up in the house all day, and Matheo decided to stay home with him to keep him company. Kate couldn't, however. She had far too much schoolwork missing, again, and so had to attend school for the day. During the afternoon, Todd was sitting on the floor, huddled in a thick blanket, and with a box of tissues next to him. Matheo was also sitting across from him, playing a game of BattleShip with Todd.

"I said it was B3!" Todd shouted, before pouting. "You totally put the peg in the wrong hole, bro!"

Todd and Matheo were tied, both having a 3-seater and a 2-seater left. This was the first time this had happened to either of them, both just 5 lucky guesses away from either defeat, or victory.

"Me? Cheat?" Matheo put his hand on his chest, and his eyes widened. "I would _never_."

"Show me your board, then." Todd said, annoyed.

"What?!" Matheo said, in disbelief. "Why would I…? Hey, wait a minute, how did you even … Er… _Know_ I was cheating in the first place?"

"I was bluffing." Todd smirked. "But now I know you were. Put the peg in the correct spot, now."

"Fine." Matheo grumbled, moving the peg over a spot.

"So?" Todd asked. "Did I get your ship?"

"Well, you DID, before you falsely accused me of cheating, and told me to move the peg somewhere ELSE."

"Wait, what?!" Todd asked.

"What was hard to understand about that statement, dude? You screwed yourself. End of story."

"Ah, MAN!" Todd yelled, before sneezing twice, at the same time.

"Bless you… Okay, my turn. Uh, let's go with B2."

"Nuts." Todd put a red peg in the middle of his 3-seater.

"I think you put the peg in the wrong spot, Todd." Matheo said, smugly.

"Shut up."

Matheo twiddled his thumbs. "So, after you lose your 4th game in a row, you up for another rematch? … Or is 12 games enough?"

"Maybe you should ask yourself that." Todd smirked. "Besides, when I win this, we'll be 6-to-6. We're gonna need a tie-breaker… B3."

"Oh, my…" Matheo rolled his eyes. "How'd you guess THAT?"

"Can you not mock me every chance you get?" Todd sniffled.

"I'll mock anyone who uses the word 'mock.' " Matheo smirked, putting a red peg in his 2-seater.

"Yeah, whatever." Todd sat still. "Let's try A4."

"Hit."

"Sweet!" Todd fist pumped. "You're going down, to Chinatown!"

"Yeah, yeah… C2"

"Pfft. Not even close."

Matheo stared at the board, and groaned. "... Hey, you think we could take a break for a sec? I'm starving… You know, metaphorically."

"Yeah, I know you're not actually… Whatever. Yeah, sure. I guess I could use a bite to eat, too."

Todd stood up, clutching his blanket all the while, and blowing his nose into a handful of tissues. He groaned loudly. Matheo opened the freezer, and took out a frozen pizza. Todd took out a cooking pan from the cupboard, and sprayed it with cooking oil.

"Pan's all ready." Todd said, weakly.

"Good, cuz the pizza's coming at ya!" Matheo paused. "Or… Why bother with the oven, when FireGuy could cook it instantly?"

"Matheo, please." Todd said, sternly. "That's our only pizza."

"Alright, whatever. I'm just trying to cheer you up, dude." Matheo mumbled, dropping the pizza onto the pan.

"Thanks." Todd said, sliding the pan into the oven, and preheating it. "It should be good to go, in… Uh… Let's go with 25-ish minutes."

"Coolio." Matheo took out a protein bar from the pantry, and bit into it. "Hey, you wanna race around the neighborhood?"

"Maybe tomorrow."

"Gotcha." Matheo clicked his tongue. "Football? I'll let you use your Splicatrix…"

"Not while I'm SICK, dude." Todd sneezed, covering his sleeve in snot. "... That's disgusting."

As Todd washed his sleeve, he heard Matheo gasp behind him. Matheo was watching the news, and pointing excitedly at it.

"Todd! It's a supervillain! Let's go!"

"But… The pizza."

"Todd, come on!" Matheo moaned. "We'll be back by then!"

"Alright, but I'm gonna go Haxie, and do support. You, the not sick one, should probably do the heavy lifting."

"Dude, you're really good at making plans, you know?"

"... Thanks? Anyways, let's get this over with, come on." Todd motioned.

The twins opened the front door, Todd shivering all the while, and activated their Omnitrixes, Todd dialing Haxie, and Matheo dialing to FastGuy, and they both slammed their cores down, creating 2 bright flashes of red and blue light.

()

Metal wires came flying out of the Splicatrix, and wrapped around Todd's entire body, making it incredibly skinny. His eyes and nose became a giant blue eyeball, and 2 holographic-esque, thin wings shot out of his back. He buzzed, and flew around in a circle.

()

Matheo's Optritrix sank into his arm, and veins ran all over his arm, as well. The veins ran up to his face, and transmogrified his face, making it blue, with black lines running from his forehead to his chin. His legs became long, and his feet grew wheels on their soles, and finally, 3 long claws grew out of his hands. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he threw his visor down.

()

"Haxie…!" He said, before looking down at himself.

Because of his sickness, Haxie's body couldn't generate enough energy for him to be able to fly, (Causing his blue wiring to become a sickly brown.), and so, he plummeted to the ground. Thankfully, though, FastGuy ran over, and caught him.

"Okay... " Haxie said in a high-pitched voice. "Maybe my plan wasn't that good."

"Do you know how to transform into a different alien mid-transformation, yet?" FastGuy asked, picking up speed.

"No…" Haxie mumbled, clearly in disarray. "I thought it might have had something to do with the Omnitrix symbols on our chest, but that's how we Splice, or go Optimal, so I don't even know if it's possible..."

"Speaking of which…" FastGuy said, searching the city for the attacker. "Try splicing now! You figured out how to control it, right?"

"Sure… I guess. Yeah, why not?"

Haxie turned his Omnitrix symbol to a marking that looked like a plant, but was extremely bulky, and muscular. He slapped it, and was engulfed in blue light.

()

Haxie's wiring became a vibrant green, and covered with leaves. 2 gigantic thin legs burst out of his waist, and curve downwards. Meanwhile, Haxie's eye became tinted yellow, and he shot a laser beam out of it.

()

The light faded, and due to the extra weight, FastGuy collapsed, and the now-Spliced Haxie tumbled onto the ground.

"OverRoot and Haxie?" He asked, getting up. "HaxRoot."

HaxRoot looked over to FastGuy, who just now managed to stand. "FastGuy, do you know where the villain is? … Maybe his name? What he's doing…? ANYTHING?"

"No, I don't." FastGuy admitted. "I thought we'd find him a lot faster then this."

"Oh. My. GAWD." A passerby yelled. "It's the Katachi league!"

"What's that?" FastGuy asked, confused.

"It's the name our fans made for us, dude." HaxRoot said, excited. "It consists of you, me, and Kate! It's really… Really… A-A-CHOO!" HaxRoot sneezed loudly.

"Oh!" FastGuy pretended like he'd known that. "YES! The Katachi league! … Have you guys considered calling us the 'Omni-Triplets,' though?"

"... But Katachi League sounds cool!" A woman yelled.

"I mean, they're just names…"

"And what if you guys get a fourth member? Omni-Quadruplets is just lame!"

"Oh." FastGuy had not thought about that. "Uh, okay, we'll stick with Katachi league! Thanks, citizen! By the way, do you happen to know where a certain supervillain is attacking the city?"

"Don't you?" The first Passerby asked.

"No."

"Oh. Well, they're busting up Toodles Lane."

"Thanks, citizens! You make this city worth protecting Okay, gotta go!" FastGuy grabbed HaxRoot, and sped off.

()

''Katachi League…" FastGuy mumbled to himself. "I'll admit, it's growing on me."

"There he is!" HaxRoot yelled, jumping out of FastGuy's hands.

In front of the twins was a large robot, rectangular in nature, with large yellow eyes. It was stomping around the street, terrorizing everyone. It made pretty generic beeping noises. FastGuy sprinted around the robot, and climbed up the side of it's leg, scratching holes in it all the while. HaxRoot used his veins to try and climb up the robot's back, but the vines withered away, turning to dust incredibly quickly. Within a few seconds, Haxie fell right back onto the ground, and shouted in pain.

'Okay, you giant pile of junk!" FastGuy yelled, climbing onto the robot's face. "Who are you? What's your big evil plan!? And what's the longest, most fun way to beat you up?!"

In response, the robot slammed it's hand into it's face, squishing FastGuy, before it grabbed him, and threw him into a skyscraper. FastGuy yelled, and crashed through a giant glass window, and into a busy office, everyone in it staring at him in fear and disbelief.

HaxRoot sat up, shaking his head, before he saw the robot's foot coming down on top of him. Enlarging his arms via his vines, HaxRoot pushed against the sole of the robot's foot, desperately trying to stop it from crushing him, but it was no use. He only slowed down it's descent, before FastGuy came speeding under the foot, grabbed HaxRoot, and bolted away from the robot.

"Thanks… Dude." HaxRoot said, weakly. "Let me just… Catch my breath, okay?"

"No way." FastGuy shook his head. "This whole fight you've been completely useless, and almost gotten yourself killed WAY too many times. You're staying here."

"What?!" HaxRoot protested. "You don't make that call, dude!"

HaxRoot stood up, and stared at Matheo, face to face. "I'm gonna help."

FastGuy shook his head, and slapped his Omnitrix symbol.

()

FastGuy's arms transformed into thruster turbines, and his visor became permanently closed. The balls on his soles were also coated in metal, and spikes covered his tail. His Omnitrix symbol grew 4 spikes, resembling an 'X,' and he levitated off of the ground for a few seconds.

()

"Optimal FastGuy!" He said, before shaking his head. "You've got me doing it, too, dude."

He turned around, and took off at an immense speed. Optimal FastGuy hoisted his thrusters behind him, activating them, sending him rocketing towards the robot, before he pointed them at the ground, and he launched off the ground, and delivering a spiked-tail whip into the robot's eyes, causing the eye to combust.

"Aw, geez." HaxRoot muttered. "If only I could find some way to help out."

FastGuy ran back to the robot, and slammed his tail into the robot's ankles, slicing deep into the metal. He ran around the feet, doing this over, and over, until the robot kicked FastGuy back, into HaxRoot, and they both fell on top of each other.

"Ouch." FastGuy whined. "I felt that, a lot."

"We've gotta get the advantage." HaxRoot groaned.

"I might be able to help with that." They heard a voice behind them, and turned to look at where it came from.

There was an 11-year-old brown kid, wearing a red tuxedo, and shorts under it. His hair was styled in two large spikes, and wearing tennis shoes, and looking at them.

"Who are you?" HaxRoot asked.

"What, you haven't heard of me?" The kid shook his head. "Commoners. My name's Billy Billions."

"You mean, the billionaire?!" FastGuy shot up, immediately interested.

"Yes." Billy smirked. "And you're members of the Katachi league."

"Yeah." HaxRoot sighed. "I guess so."

"Okay. Then I'm gonna help you guys out."

"… Wait, why?" FastGuy squinted at Billy.

"Because, I made that mech-suit, I know how to shut it down. The person inside of that thing stole it, so of course I wanna get it back."

"Well, how DO we shut it down?" HaxRoot coughed.

"It's simple." Billy smirked, handing a remote control to FastGuy. "Just press this button, right here, and boom. The whole thing just shuts down."

"Sweet." FastGuy said, pressing the only button on the remote.

As soon as he did, though, the remote beeped, and gave the twins a message.

"Information acquired."

"Hey, dude? I think you gave us the wrong-?" FastGuy turned around to look back at Billy, but he had vanished.

"He's gone?!" HaxRoot asked.

"Grr… He tricked us!"

"Great." HaxRoot rolled his eyes. "Now what are we gonna do now?"

FastGuy looked back at the robot, which was still trying to terrorize the citizens. He sighed, and cracked his knuckles.

"The plan's still the same. I take out the robot, and you stay here, and don't screw anything up, okay?"

"… Fine." HaxRoot sighed.

FastGuy sprinted towards the robot, and tore a mailbox out of the ground, and threw the mailbox at it, exploding in a cloud of envelopes. FastGuy jumped off the side of a building, and came soaring through it, and tail whipped it in it's stomach, and the robot double over in pain. FastGuy jumped off the robot, and fell down behind it, but the robot smacked FastGuy out of the way, and tore a lamppost out of the ground, and threw it into FastGuy, causing him to yelp in pain.

"Oh, geez." HaxRoot said, watching in horror.

FastGuy picked himself up off the floor, and glared at the robot. He ran back at the robot, and ran around it over, and over again, extremely quickly. He ran so fast around it, in fact, that the wind from his speed began to pick up, and create a tornado, which lifted the robot into the air, before running off, causing the tornado to disappear, and the robot began to fall down. While this was happening, FastGuy ran off, turned around, and tail-whipped the robot far off, into the side of a skyscraper, which cracked, and began to fall. In response, the robot grabbed the skyscraper, and used it to hit FastGuy so hard, that he went flying off into the distance, and yelling in pain.

HaxRoot stood up, and stared at his Omnitrix symbol. He needed to change into a different alien, NOW, before Matheo became road pizza. Todd fiddled around with his Omnitrix, before he noticed a small, extremely light grey dot in the middle of his Omnitrix symbol, a little button in the middle. Todd thought of how useful Upgrade would be now, and sighed, before he tapped the button, and emitted yet another flash of blue light.

()

Todd was instantly transformed back into a human, but the Omnitrix symbol remained on his chest. It extruded a ton of liquid, black goo, which covered his entire body, and made him taller. His face disappeared, and was replaced by a glowing blue ring. The bottom half of his body became blue, and sort of blobby. Lastly, dozens of stringy blue tentacles ran along Todd's body, becoming circuitry. He shot a laser in all directions.

()

"UPGRADE!" He yelled. "Huh… Just who I was hoping for…"

Upgrade looked up at the robot, which was holding FastGuy in his hand, and squeezing him. Upgrade grimaced, and transformed himself into liquid, and jumping onto a powerline, before popping back out, and encasing the robot entirely, taking control of it. Upgrade used his new control, to gently place FastGuy back on the ground.

"Did you just change, mid-transformation?!" FastGuy shouted, in disbelief. "HOW?!"

"I'll tell you later." Upgrade said. "First, let's see where this robot came from… Huh?"

"Now what?" FastGuy asked, loudly.

"I think I can see the person inside of the robot! I think it's some kind of-!" Upgrade was interrupted by a massive explosion on his shoulder, forcing him to de-fuse.

"It is I!" A woman soared out of the explosion, grinning.

She was wearing a black trench-coat, with golden lab-goggles, and brown, skin-tight pants. Her hair was slicked down, and covering one of her eyes, which were a deep blue.

"I am Shadow-Queen, you fools!"

"More like Shadow-wein! …-er." Upgrade said, and Matheo snickered.

"Now, then, kiddies!" Shadow-Queen yelled, and thrust her hand out.

Everybody's shadow transformed into an odd blob with thousands of hands, two of which grabbed FastGuy and Upgrade, while the rest grabbed passerby's, or pieces of the destroyed mech. The free hands began reassembling the mech.

"Your little field trip has come to an end, children!" The Shadow-Queen grinned. "I'll use my shadows to get you petulant humans out of the way, for good! After that, I'll cover the planet from the sun, throttling Earth into a permanent night!"

"Why, though?" Upgrade asked, confused. "What possible reason could you have for trying to do that?"

"The reason is YOUR FACE!" The Shadow-Queen yelled. "Your face is enough to drive me to such insanity!"

She manipulated the shadow-beast to slam Upgrade and FastGuy into the ground. They both groaned in pain.

"Ow… Tell me, Upgrade, has that whole 'talking the bad guy out of being bad' tactic ever worked for you?"

"Maybe… Once... " Upgrade replied. "... As GreyMatter…"

"I knew it!" FastGuy shouted, kicking the ground.

"Face it, boys." Shadow-Queen grinned. "You've lost!"

"Don't count on it!" Upgrade shot a blue laser out of his eye, glazing Shadow-Queen's shoulder.

"Gah!" Shadow-Queen dropped the Twins on the ground.

"Nice going, bro!" FastGuy said speeding away. "But I'm gonna have to bulk up if I wanna beat this moonlit Git!"

"Is that even a word?!" Upgrade yelled back.

"Just tell me how to swap forms, dude!"

"Fine!" Upgrade said, pointing to his Omnitrix symbol. "You just concentrate on who you want, and tap the middle of your Omnitrix symbol!"

"Got it!" FastGuy shouted, tapping his symbol, to become a large, orange beast with the Omnitrix symbol on his shoulder.

"Nice!" Upgrade gave him a thumbs up, before upgrading a car next to him.

The upgraded car grew wings, and soared into the air, before he de-fused, sending the car flying down, into the Shadow-Queen, and exploding. The smoke faded, revealing she had made a large shadow-shield. She glared at the twins.

"That's it." She glared. "I'm gonna teach you kids a lesson."

"And we're gonna ditch!" Upgrade shot back, as DogGuy ran past him, and scratched at the Shadow-Queen.

"Back off, Cujo!" She yelled, and Judo flipped DogGuy into a dumpster.

Upgrade looked around, and got an idea. He ran over to Shadow-Queen, and waved his arms around.

"Hey, crazy!" He taunted. "You're shadows are pretty tough, but you seem like you've never even been in a gym!"

"The first thing I'm gonna do when I catch you guys is teach you how to make a good comeback!" She cracked her knuckles and punched at Upgrade, but he moved so her hand went right through him. "What the?"

"Love to stay and chat, really." Upgrade waved. "But I've got things to do, places to go, people to meet, y'know, the works!"

Upgrade jumped at a traffic light, and upgraded it, as Shadow-Queen stomped after him. Upgrade transformed the pole into a giant cannon, with a yellow piece of glass on it's front. Shadow-Queen recoiled slightly in surprise.

"Say 'Cheese!' " Upgrade yelled, and fired a gigantic beam of light into Shadow-Queen, disintegrating her as she screamed.

"And that's how you light up a room!" Upgrade said, triumphantly, as his symbol beeped yellow, returning him to normal.

DogGuy eventually managed to claw his way out of the dumpster, and crawled over to Todd, extremely pale-looking. He poked his symbol, and was also transformed back to human. Matheo sneezed, loudly.

"Hey, Matheo!" Todd said, better than ever. "I think going Upgrade cured me! I'm great!"

"Cool." Matheo said, sniffling. "But I definitely caught your bug, dude. I couldn't see, or sense ANYTHING the whole time!"

Todd patted Matheo on the back. "It's cool, bro! … Besides, we still have 1 and a half games of BattleShip to finish!" Todd grinned at his brother.

"Oh, NOO!" Matheo yelled, horrified, as the twins walked back to their house, Matheo crying all the while.


	11. O11: Sky Plundering!

Matheo Harrison was the kind of guy you'd call to repair your television, or your refrigerator when it stops working. He knew machines like the back of his hand, it was just his thing. He had no clue why it was tough for anyone to get a grip on. Machines only look like they'd be complicated, but in reality, the wiring in the back is just really messy, or there might, there MIGHT, be a safeguard implemented in the device to stop any old random weirdo from tearing open your local toaster, and transforming it into a cannon that shoots super-heated metal at people. (Which, for some reason, was extremely easy to accomplish, despite the fact that everybody keeps telling you otherwise.)

"It's all just the easiest thing in the world." Matheo muttered to himself. "Especially now, with my Optitrix."

Matheo mainly used the Optitrix as a light source, though it also doubled as an infinite power source, as well. It had quite a few other functions, as well, such as acting as a stop-watch, in the incredibly rare case he needed such a tool. But even without his Optitrix, Matheo was just… Kind of a genius, really, at least when it came to technology. And since Tech bleeds into medicine, one could even call him experienced in biology, though it was hardly that simple.

"Are you almost done, dude?" Kate asked, reading a novel, featuring a trash-can who a couple of kids made come to life. "After you two idiots set that pizza on fire, and took out the oven, we haven't had anything to eat all week."

Kate was sitting on a plastic container in the garage, staring at Matheo while he fixed the oven in the driveway. The oven itself was propped up on 4 sets of bricks, which were holding it off the ground. Matheo was laying under it, messing with it's wiring underneath the oven.

"What's your point, mortal?" Matheo grunted, taking out the busted heating ring.

"My POINT is, that I'd prefer to not have to wait even LONGER for another meal."

"Cool."

"Not cool, can you hurry that up?"

"Well, sorry missy, but I would have gotten around to it sooner, if Todd didn't give me that stupid virus!"

"Why didn't you just go Upgrade, and fix it, then?"

"I'm sorry, do you mean 'TechGuy?' " Matheo asked, annoyed.

"Whatever, the black blobby dude with the circuitry on him that shoots lasers, that guy."

"Well, I tried that, but I accidentally sneezed all over the Optitrix, so… You know… I didn't want to see if that would screw it up, so I just… Uh… Didn't."

"Dude, you know that wouldn't do anything."

"How would YOU know?! Yours is on the back of your neck, how would you even SNEEZE on that?!"

"I have my ways." Kate smirked.

"Uh-huh, well, we're not talking about the Amazing Kate, capiche?"

"Are you even close to finishing, though?"

"No! Fixing an oven that literally EXPLODED doesn't take a couple seconds!"

Suddenly, the door to the garage was flung open, revealing Todd, who was grinning like an idiot. "Good news, guys!"

"DUDE!" Matheo yelled, hitting his head on the oven. "What's your malfunction?!"

"Oh, I'll tell you my malfunction." Todd grinned, holding up a brochure for a newly completed zoo. "We're going to the local Denver Zoo! It just opened up on Gola street! That's, like 8 miles from here!"

"So what're you thinking?" Kate asked, as she stood up. "We just fly down there as aliens, or something?"

"I've actually been working on something to fix that problem." Matheo rolled out from under the oven. "I call it the 'Omni-Kix' feature. It's like a suit of armor for our human forms."

"Really?" Todd asked, confused. "How does it work?"

"Well, it's still in it's conceptual phase, but the point is, the function projects super-suits onto our human bodies. The thing about that is, I actually need the physical suits to model it after. So… I had my friend Mutt tailor us some costumes!"

Matheo walked over to a rusty metal closet, and typed a code into the keypad. The closet whirred to life, and out sprung a series of 3 suits. They were all mainly black, but the secondary colors varied depending on the suit, those being red, blue, and green. Kate squealed, and ran over to the green one, before pulling it off the rack.

"Also, don't worry about your clothes. You can just throw that on over them." Matheo pointed out.

"Awesome." Kate grinned.

Kate's suit had a large, black hourglass symbol on it's chest, with green circuitry running over the rest. It came with two green and black gloves, as well as black boots with green soles. Finally, Kate put on a black helmet, with a green hourglass symbol on the front, and a large, green visor, which covered her entire face, acting as a one-way mirror.

"That's so cool!" Todd said, jumping up and down. "My turn!"

Todd threw on his suit, which was near-identical to Kate's, but with blue parts instead of green. Once it was on, he grinned. Matheo smirked, and put on his suit, which had red parts.

"Okay." Hyu said, striking a pose. "This is super cool! You even designed ports for our Omnitrixes!"

"Duh." Besu said. "The suits are also gonna have a variety of other features, such as the ability to breathe underwater, or in space, lasers guns on the hands and magnetic properties for the gloves and boots."

"Yeah, yeah, cool. But you haven't actually added that stuff?" Yunai said, putting her hand on her hip.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"So it doesn't matter." Hyu finished, activating his Splicatrix.

"One more thing." Matheo cautioned. "The Splicatrix won't recognize the suits as viable clothing when you're transformed, since you're already wearing clothes under it.

"... So?" Yunai asked, cocking her head to the side.

"... So-o-o, Your aliens are gonna look pretty much the same, but you'll still be wearing the suits when you transform back."

"Cool! Disappearing super-suits WOULD be awkward… Can we go now?"

"Fine." Besu grumbled.

Hyu grinned, dialing in DragonFly, and slapping his core down, and shortly becoming engulfed in blue light afterwords.

()

Hyu's uniform evaporated, leaving him in his regular clothes. Hyu's Splicatrix sank into hi skin, and his skin became overrun with navy-blue scales. His eyes became large, yellow, and pupil-less. His teeth sank into his gums, which became tough, and 4 extra legs tore out of his waist. Two large wings ripped out of Hyu's back, and a large tail flew out of his hips. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his left Bicep, and Hyu grinned, smoke puffing out of his nostrils.

()

"DRAGONFLY!" He shouted, before soaring off into the sky.

Yunai smirked, and grew a large red-and-black hoverboard from her feet. She rode this off, after Todd, while Besu stayed behind and looked at them. Those 2 never seemed to appreciate his machinery, no matter how much work he put into it, all THEY ever cared about was their Omnitrixes. Then, Besu got an idea. He would prove to those guys, that he was far cooler, and way more useful than a couple watches. He hit a button on the side of the wall, and it opened, revealing a motorcycle, with mounted machineguns, and boosters on it's back. Besu got onto the cycle, and drove out of the garage.

"I'll show you guys." Besu frowned.

He flipped a lever on the bike's mainframe, and the boosters exploded behind him, sending Besu flying off, into the horizon. He was doing his best to avoid the houses and cars flying at him, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he screwed up. Knowing this, Besu punched another button, and two metallic wings thrust out of the cycle's sides, and Besu's cycle began levitating off the ground. Looking forward, Besu quickly realized that he was heading straight for a house, so he turned his cycle completely to the side barely missing it. Besu had finally managed to clear the neighborhood, and now it was just a case of catching up to his siblings.

"It's… Really… Windy up here…" Besu grunted, squinting his eyes so he could see something. "... And cold… should've brought… A helmet…"

"Besu!" DragonFly yelled from ahead. "You made it!"

"Yeah! … What'd I miss?"

"Not much, but you were about to miss our landing!" Yunai shouted. "Hey, speaking of which, what's up with the motorcycle?!"

"It's cool, isn't it?!" Besu screamed.

"Not really." DragonFly said.

"HEY!" Besu tried to catch up to him, but couldn't. "You wanna say that again?!"

"No time! We're landing now!" Yunai pointed down, before she de-mutated her wings, and fell down, into the clouds.

"Sweet!" DragonFly said, and fell down with her.

"Ugh." Besu said, before slowly hovering his motorcycle down after them. "I'm on my way guys… Just wait a little longer…"

()

It had been 5 minutes, by now, and Besu was still descending. He knew Todd and Kate were probably already in the zoo by now, and probably threw their costumes into the dumpster for 'safekeeping,' or something. Or maybe they just wore them, and were all like: "Hi mister, me and my brother are superheroes, free tickets please!" And signing autographs for everybody. But here was Besu, sitting on his motorcycle. Alone. Cool, but alone.

"ARR!" A voice yelled in the distance. "It be a passerby life-boat! Bring 'em in, boys!"

"What the-?" Besu asked, before he heard a cannon fire, sending an anchor attached to a chain into his bike, tearing a hole in it "HEY! That cost me!"

The chain drew back, taking Besu with it, and sending him flying onto the ship, yelling. Besu was holding on to the handlebars, but his grip wasn't gonna last much longer. Thankfully, he was already on the ship a few seconds later, surrounded by a group of men, wearing dirty, hole-filled shirts, grinning at him with their yellow teeth. Besu gulped, and looked at them.

"Uh… Hi, guys?" He said, sweating. "Any chance you're heading down to the zoo? Because, I REALLY need to catch up to my siblings, and-"

"And who be this?!" A loud, gruff voice boomed from behind the crowd.

"A random passerby who isn't…" Besu suddenly had a realization. "Are you guys pirates… In the sky?"

A large man, wearing a torn, black leather jacket, and a parrot on his shoulder forced his way through the crowd, and stared at Besu. He was wearing a hat with a skull and crossbones on the front, and an eyepatch on his right eye.

"Name's Captain Sam. And yes. We're pirates, in the sky."

"Don't you mean, 'Yar?' "Besu joked.

"I mean 'yes,' lad."

"Ah. Obviously… I'm Besu by the way." He stuck his hand out, and Captain Sam shook it.

"Yes, we sky-pirates are a rare breed these days. You don't oft find scallywags who also happen to have incredible technological genius… And I just do the accent for fun, not-"

"I figured that was the case." Besu interrupted, putting his hand up. "You weren't exactly consistent."

"Arr… I get that one quite a number o' times."

"Okay, NOW you're just hamming it up."

The crew all chuckled slightly, and Besu grinned. Todd and Kate rarely laughed at his jokes. He already felt a million times more comfortable here then he EVER had at his own house.

"Speaking of which, what's with the costume?" A lanky man with a blue bandana asked, pointing at Besu.

"Uh… I could ask you guys the same thing, AmIRite?"

Nobody responded. A suspicious stare began to manifest on everybody's face. Besu gulped.

"Uh, tough crowd. But, er, yeah. It's my super-suit. I'm kind of a big deal back down on land."

"He's a SUPERHERO?!" A Teen shouted, drawing a pocketknife. "I knew we couldn't trust him!"

"No, guys, I'm not here to-!"

"Is that true, lad?" Captain Same said, looking down at Besu. "Are you here to try and take us down?"

"WHAT?!" Besu put his hands up, and began backing away. "Me?! Never! I-I-I'm not even really happy being a super-HERO, you know? I'd much rather be a… A Super-Pirate! Yeah!"

"So." Captain Sam said, grimly. "You want to be a crew member, on The SS Saint, eh?"

"Uh… Yes?"

"Then he's gotta win the participation duel, right Cap'n?!" A man wearing a jacket without an undershirt asked, excitedly.

"Correct, Larry!" Captain Sam unsheathed a large, electric sword. "If you wish to join our crew, you must win a duel with the captain! That shouldn't be too hard, now, should it super-lad?"

"Uh… I guess." Besu shrugged, and activated his Optitrix, selected DiamondGuy, and slammed down his core.

()

The Splicatrix sank into Besu's arm, and red and grey metal plating covered his body, as well as black rubber stretchers on his waist. A red hood appeared on his head, and Besu's face became coated as well, leaving 4 red eyes. Finally, an Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and tubes of water starting from his back, plugged into his arms. He shot water in every direction, while he shouted.

()

The light faded, and WaterGuy looked at himself. "That ain't right." He said, before he saw Captain Sam charging at him. "Oh boy."

"Your shapeshifting can't help you now, boy!" He shouted, thrusting the sword at WaterGuy, who dodged out of the way, grunting. "Unless that form's supposed to scare me, I can't even figure out what you're supposed to USE it for!"

"To help you walk the PLANK!" WaterGuy yelled, and shot a large blast out from his hands, knocking Captain Sam into the mast.

"Not bad, lad." Captain Sam said, steadying himself. "But if you'd like to win, you're gonna have to do better than that!"

"Oh, I will!" WaterGuy shot back, using his water blasts to shoot himself off the ground.

"What in Tarnation…?" Captain Sam asked, following WaterGuy around the sky, thoroughly confounded.

WaterGuy looped back around, and angled himself, so that his foot was sent directly into Captain Sam's stomach. The captain guffawed, before he was sent spiraling back, and almost fell over the railing, he looked back, to see WaterGuy, who had grabbed the Electric Sword, and pointed it at the captain, smirking.

"I think we're done here."

"Aye." The captain said, and got up, chuckling. "I've seen winners before, but never have I seen such a thorough floor-wiping before."

"Ah, come on. I'm right here." WaterGuy said, tossing the captain his sword.

"Congratulations, Mr. Super-Lad. You're an honorary member of our crew, now."

"You mean, I get to be a real sky-pirate?!" WaterGuy asked in awe. "I get to sail around the skies with other geniuses, and take no regard of the rules, and plunder innocent establishments for loot?! … *gasp.* Do I get to get scurvy?!"

"Er… No." Captain Sam said, awkwardly. "I mean, we're sky-pirates, but we're the perfectly legal kind... Though the scurvy part is optional. We don't really want to steal from anybody."

"Or start any fights!" A crew-member piped up.

"Exactly!" Captain Sam agreed.

"Oh." WaterGuy groaned. "Well, what DO you do? Do you practice a legal form of plundering?"

"It's mostly roleplay." Captain Sam tapped the back of his neck, and split in two, as a small nerdy kid walked outside of it.

The other pirates did the same, and soon WaterGuy was surrounded by small kids, probably a few years younger than he was. He looked around himself in horror. These weren't genius pirates at all. They were just a bunch of kids.

"I wanna go back." WaterGuy said in horror.

"Can we at least keep your bike? … Oh, my name's Gerald, by the way." The former Captain Sam stuck out his hand.

"What?! No, I mean, I wanted to join you guys because I thought you were COOL, not because you were smart!"

"But aren't you smart, too, mister?"

"… I don't know, but I guess I was just being too rash trying to run off and join a gang of pirates." WaterGuy sighed. "I'll bet that feeling's just making itself real right now."

"I feel you." A ginger girl said, pulling on his sleeve. "I haven't seen my mommy in days."

WaterGuy shook his head. He finally thought he found a lot of people who were just like him. Both smart, AND cool. But he couldn't stand Todd and Kate because they were too cool, but not too smart. These kids were too much of the opposite. Maybe he'd just never find people who were like him. Suddenly, the ship lit up, and there was a loud 'boom.'

"Sir we're being attacked! … By REAL Sky-Pirates!" A blonde kid screamed, scampering back to his pirate suit, and sealing it back up.

"Man your stations, men!" Gerald shouted, and hopped back into the body of Captain Sam, sprinting back to the main deck.

"What about me?" WaterGuy asked, in confusion.

"You do whatever!" One of the pirates shouted. "You're not part of the crew anymore, right?!"

"… I guess I'm not."

"Then you don't take orders from the Cap'n! So scram!"

WaterGuy looked at the enemy ship, which was far larger than the one he was on. He had a chance to leave, but he already knew he wasn't gonna take it. WaterGuy shouted out, and flew into the air, shooting at the enemy ship. They fired dozens of cannonballs at him, but WaterGuy stuck his hands out, and forced them out of the way with his water, sending them far off into the distance. He grabbed on to one, and heard it ticking, so he jumped away, only to see it explode seconds later. WaterGuy flew far above the ship, and tapped the middle of his Omnitrix symbol, and emitting an explosion of red light.

()

Matheo was reverted to normal, however the Omnitrix symbol remained on his body. Diamonds engulfed him entirely, and his eyes were flipped over, becoming a yellow type of crystal. Two large, diamond spikes tore out of his back. DiamondGuy turned around, and flexed.

()

DiamondGuy fell from, the sky, into the ship, causing the floor to crack, and the pirates to fly up, into the sky, before they fell back down onto the floor, shouting in pain. DiamondGuy cracked his knuckles, morphing his fist into a hammer, and smacking a pirate into the mast, so hard that it cracked in half, and fell off the ship, into the clouds below.

"I guess that guy didn't get his Mast-er's degree… Nah, still gotta work on that one." DiamondGuy said, awkwardly.

There was large blast heard behind him, and DiamondGuy whirled around, only to be blasted by a large red laser. He yelled in agony, and was sent flying into the wooden wall of the ship, and fell on the floor. The captain of the enemy's ship, clothed in a dark red coat, and an orange beard walked over to him, the laser cannon replacing his right arm.

"And what are you, huh? Some kind of sky-monster?" He asked, a dull confusion is his voice.

"I guess you could put it that way." DiamongGuy said, clutching his stomach. "How 'bout you? Are you just another kid in disguise?"

"Hardly." The man grimaced. "The name's Captain Moby. And I'm the one who's gonna put you to sleep."

He aimed the cannon at DiamondGuy one last time, and he closed his eyes, before an electronic sword was thrown into the cannon, causing it to explode. DiamondGuy opened his eyes, to see the crew of the SS Saint swinging over to the enemy ship, and charging at the raiding pirates. DiamondGuy grinned, before turning back to Captain Moby.

"Looks like the cavalry's here." DiamondGuy said, grinning.

Captain Moby pointed his hand at DiamondGuy's crew. "Keep them off my tail!" He yelled. "I've got a monster to finish off!"

"I'd hardly call myself the monster!" DiamondGuy shouted.

DiamondGuy forced his hand onto his abdomen, healing it with more diamonds, before turning back to Captain Moby, who was already several feet above him, holding an electronic, sparkling axe, and swinging it at DiamondGuy, who created a large Diamond shield, and used it to parry Moby away. Captain Moby landed on the edge of the ship's wall. He ran along it, up to the ship's wheel, and jumped off that, and threw his ax at DiamondGuy. The axe landed in DiamondGuy's arm, who yelled in pain. He tried to pull it out of his arm, and fell to the ground in weakness.

"Think about it like this, crystal-man." Moby said, standing over DiamondGuy. "You're just another monster. And the fact that you speak English doesn't change that. And, you'll make a perfect trophy!"

"I'm giving you… One last chance… To take your crew, and… skedaddle off to China, or something… "

"Unfortunately for you." Captain Moby said, pulling the energy axe from DiamondGuy's arm, and raising it above his head. "You're threats are pointless!"

He thrust the sword downward, almost hitting him, but Captain Sam jumped in the way, the axe hitting his neck, and electrifying his entire suit, causing it to spring open, and send Gerald rolling out onto the side of the ship's deck, unconscious.

"No…" DiamondGuy growled, turning back to Captain Moby, who was just confused.

"Odd." Moby said. "I didn't expect there to be a kid inside of my life-time nemesis… Oh well. You're weak, and he's knocked out… Eh, it hardly matters."

DiamondGuy grabbed Moby's face, and flung him through the door to the Captain's Quarters, before he rolled over, and sealed the room shut with diamonds. After that, DiamondGuy rushed over to Captain Sam, and held him in his arms.

"Gerald! Gerald, are you okay?!" DiamondGuy asked, his Omnitrix symbol beeping, and returning him to normal. "Say something!"

"… Something." Gerald muttered weakly, and chuckled.

"Okay, you're fine." Matheo deadpanned, and dropped Gerald instantly.

Matheo looked around. With Captain Moby stuck in his quarters, and the SS Saint's crew outnumbering their crew, the raiding pirates kneeled to the ground, and surrendered. Matheo fist-pumped, and cheered. He looked to the crowd, and grinned.

()

As the ship neared the ground, Matheo turned around to say his goodbyes to the crew.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" The now fixed Captain Sam asked. "We could definitely use your skills."

"Thanks, but no thanks." Matheo chuckled. "I gotta go find my stupid siblings before they, like, blow up the zoo, or something."

"Well, if you ever need anything, you know how to reach us right? Just call the number on the paper Sam gave you."

"Got it." Matheo said.

"One last thing?" A pirate asked. "What about your bike? What're you gonna do with that?"

"That thing?" Matheo shook his head. "You keep it. You're probably gonna find some better way to use it than I will."

"Seriously?!" The pirate shook his hands in the air. "You are the best, bro!"

"Thanks." Matheo waved goodbye, as the ship closed itself, and hovered into the air. "See you guys around!"

"Farewell, Matheo! You truly were an epic pirate, bro!" They shouted, as the ship soared off into the sky.

Matheo smirked, and turned around to see Todd and Kate, who were walking out of the zoo, holding a lion on a leash, and they both waved to Matheo.

"Hey, big M!" Kate shouted. "Where were you?"

"Oh, you know." Matheo said, shrugging. "Off with some sky-pirates. You?"

"You don't wanna know." Kate said, shivering. "But hey, we got this sweet lion out of it!"

"Awe, come on!" Matheo pleaded. "Tell me!"

"Maybe later." Todd winked at him.

"… Why are you guys like this?" Matheo said, rolling his eyes.


	12. O12: Class of Zombozo!

Kate Harrison was currently sitting in the garage, watching her twin brother, Matheo Harrison, fixing their oven, which both he and her other twin brother, Todd Harrison, had managed to blow up, while Todd was sick. Kate was sitting on a plastic container of clothes. It was hardly comfortable, but she didn't expect to have been sitting here for so long. Kate had picked up the first book she saw, (unfortunately, it was the dictionary.), and had become even more bored. She had made it all the way to the E's, when she heard Matheo muttering to himself.

"It's all the easiest thing in the world…" He mumbled, messing with the underside of the oven on some kind of skateboard. "And that's not even mentioning my Optitrix.."

Kate groaned, knowing if she didn't interrupt Matheo's monologue now, he'd never finish the oven. "Hey, dude, are you almost done with that? After you two idiots set the oven on fire, while trying to cook a pizza, we haven't had anything to eat ALL week!" Kate's stomach grumbled after she finished speaking.

"Yeah?" Matheo pushed himself out from under the oven, grease covering his face, and tossing a heating ring with a large hole melted into it into a pile of junk. "What's your point, mortal?"

"My POINT is, I'd prefer to not have to wait longer for something ELSE to eat."

"Whatever." Matheo grabbed a socket wrench, and pushed himself back under the oven.

"Not 'whatever!' " Kate said, annoyed. "I just asked if you could work any faster! I mean, you're a genius, and it's taking you forever to fix some oven!"

"Well, it's Todd's fault!" Matheo said, coughing. "I would've started sooner, but HE got me sick, so blame him."

"Well, why didn't you try to cure yourself by turning into that 'Upgrade' guy?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you mean 'TechGuy?' I think that's what you meant."

"You know who I'm talking about, the black, blobby guy with circuitry on him. That guy."

"Well…" Matheo paused. "I mean, I tried, but I sneezed on my Optitrix so… I didn't want it to… You know… Malfunction."

"Dude, come on." Kate rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure nothing would happen."

"Oh yeah?! And just how would YOU know?! Your stupid thing is on the back of your neck! How would you sneeze on THAT?!" Matheo snapped.

"Oh, I have my ways…" Kate smirked.

"Yeah, okay, well we're not talking about the Amazing Kate, are we?"

"Okay, who cares? And are you even close to finishing that?"

"NO!" Matheo shouted. "Fixing an oven that literally EXPLODED doesn't just take a couple seconds!"

"But it's been 3 hours." Kate said, confused.

Before Matheo could respond, The door to the garage was flung open dramatically, as Todd jumped onto the oven, and landed in front of Kate. As he did this, there was a loud 'bang' on the bottom of the oven.

"Good news guys!" Todd shouted, holding up a brochure.

Matheo pushed himself out from under the oven, rubbing his head. "Dude, what's your malfunction!?"

"Oh, It's no malfunction!" Todd grinned, pointing to the brochure, which showed off a new zoo that Kate had never heard of before. "We're going to the local Denver Zoo that just opened on Gola street. That's like, 8 miles from here!"

"So what're you thinking?" Kate asked, crossing her arms. "What, do we do, just fly down there as aliens, or something?"

"Well ,it's a good thing one of us thinks ahead." Matheo said. "I've actually been working on something to fix that problem. I call it the 'Omni-Kix' feature. It's like a suit of armor for our human forms, if you guys couldn't tell."

"Really?" Todd asked. "How would that even work?"

"Well... I-it's still in it's conceptual phase, but the point is, the function projects super-suits onto our human bodies. The thing about that is, I actually need the physical suits to model it after. So… I had my friend Mutt tailor us some costumes!"

Matheo typed a code into the keypad, on an old torn-up closet. As he did, a clothing rack with 3 suits sprung out of it. The first suit was black with some green, while the second one had some blue, and he last had some red. Kate gasped, and walked over to the green one, before pulling it off the rack.

"Also, don't worry about your clothes. The suit's made to just be thrown on over them, so you can just through that on over them." Matheo pointed out.

"Neat." Kate grinned.

Kate's suit had a large, black hourglass symbol on it's chest, with green circuitry running over the rest. It came with two green and black gloves, as well as black boots with green soles. Finally, Kate put on a black helmet, with a green hourglass symbol on the front, and a large, green visor, which covered her entire face, acting as a one-way mirror.

"That's so cool!" Todd said, jumping up and down. "My turn!"

Todd threw on his suit, which was near-identical to Kate's, but with blue parts instead of green. Once it was on, he grinned. Matheo smirked, and put on his suit, which had red parts.

"Okay." Hyu said, waving his arms around, and jumping all over the place. "This is super cool! You even designed ports for our Omnitrixes!"

"Obviously." Besu said. "The suits are also gonna have a variety of other features, such as the ability to breathe underwater, or in space, lasers guns on the hands and magnetic properties for the gloves and boots."

"Cool!" Yunai said, pumping her fist in the air. "How do we do that stuff?"

"Well… I haven't actually added any of that… But, I-"

"So it doesn't matter." Hyu finished, activating his Splicatrix.

"One more thing." Besu cautioned. "The Splicatrix won't recognize the suit as viable clothing when you're transformed, since you're already wearing clothes under it.

"So what?" Yunai asked.

"So, Hyu's aliens are gonna look pretty much the same, but his suit will still be on when he transforms back."

"Yawn." Yunai said, bored.

"I mean, I guess super-suits disappearing would be awkward, but I assumed you had it taken care of that." Hyu shrugged.

Hyu activated his Splicatrix, and dialed in 'DragonFly,' slamming his cored down as soon as it popped up. There was a flash of bright, blue light. It faded, revealing:

"DRAGONFLY!" He yelled, and leaped into the air.

Yunai laughed, and grew an electronic hoverboard from her feet, and used this to launch into the sky after to Hyu.

()

Yunai was extremely cold, in the air, thanks to the lower atmosphere. She mutated her arms into those of HeatBlast's, and used the warmth from that transformation to keep her cozy. She saw DragonFly ahead of her, who was just plain showing off. He opened his maw, and breathed fire into a cloud that was coming at him, flying through the smoky part of the cloud, and grinning. Yunai turned her thrusters at DragonFly, and blasted him away, while they both laughed.

"Hey, maybe if we really try, we could make going to the ZOO fun!"

"Yeah." DragonFly said, in though. "If I'm being honest, I've kind of got alternative motives for going."

"Your friends?" Yunai asked, sympathetically.

"Yeah." DragonFly said. "School just hasn't been the same without those guys."

"I get it." Yunai said. "I made a friend of mine pretty mad at me recently. I burst out laughing, and she thought I was laughing at her."

"Didn't you explain it to her?" DragonFly asked, concerned.

"Of course I did, I share a desk with her in History." Yunai shook her head. "But she won't get over it. I'm worried there might be something more to it, but she won't tell me ANYTHING."

"Sounds complicated."

"Friends can be complicated."

DragonFly laughed. "You can say that again."

Yunai smiled, before she and Todd both heard an engine purring behind them. They both turned around, to see Besu riding some kind of Sky-Cycle after them, shivering, and waving at them. Yunai and DragonFly slowed down a little to allow him to catch up.

"Besu!" DragonFly yelled. "You made it!"

"YEAH!" Besu shouted, his teeth chattering. "Hey, what'd I miss?!"

"Not much!" Yunai lied. "Though, you were about to miss the landing! … Speaking of which, what's up with the Sky-Cycle?"

"It's cool, huh?" Besu yelled back.

DragonFly and Yunai both looked at each other. "Not really!" They said, in unison.

"HEY!" Besu shouted, falling behind. "... You guys wanna say that again!?"

"No time!" Yunai said. "It's time to land!"

Yunai demutated her wings, and freefell into the cloud. DragonFly tucked his wings, and dived after her, leaving Besu to slowly descend after them.

()

"This is AWESOME!" DragonFly yelled, doing backflips.

"I KNOW!" Yunai shouted back, doing corkscrews.

The twins continued skydiving, but Yunai noticed something odd. From the zoo there was a small 'pang,' and then,. A projectile shooting at them. Yunai shouted, and mutated her arms into PaperCut's, and reinforced the, making them strong enough to slow the missile's descent. DragonFly opened his wings, shooting into the sky, before he soared back down, grabbing the missile with his legs, and throwing it back at the zoo, but the missile exploded in mid-air instead.

"Talk about a tough reception!" Yunai yelled. "I think we're under fire!"

"You think?!" DragonFly shouted, grabbing Kate, and flying straight down.

"More missiles!" Kate shouted, mutating her feet into HeatBlast's, and using those to propel DragonFly and herself forwards.

"I noticed!" DragonFly shot fire into a missile, and it exploded in mid-air.

"Where is a zoo even getting the funds for missiles?!"

"Something tells me we're not being fired at by the zoo! Keep going!"

A few seconds later, the twins landed behind a building, close to the zoo. In the alleyway, they both looked at the missiles, as Hyu transformed himself back to normal. The missiles stopped firing. They both sighed in relief.

"Ugh." Yunai said. "Finally."

"So what do we do with the suits?"

Yunai snapped her fingers. "I'll store them in the Unitrix."

"You can DO that?"

"It's worth a try. Since I'm pretty much a huge version of it, there's gotta be someplace it can store objects. Take off the suit."

Todd and Kate both took off their Omni-Kix's, and laid them on the ground. Kate stared at the suits, and tapped 2 fingers to her Unitrix chip, causing 2 green rays to shoot from her eyes, disintegrating them, and absorbing the suits into the Unitrix.

"Epic!" Todd cheered. "Now I know where to keep my change when some kids try and bully me!"

"Not happening." Kate rolled her eyes. "We're just doing this until Matheo fixes the suits."

"But you're, like, a walking storage system!"

"Doesn't matter." Kate shook her head. "You're not gonna shove your loose change in my head."

"Lame." Todd groaned, and the 2 left the alley.

()

"Tickets, please." An old woman from behind the ticket booth said, holding a stamp-maker.

"Oh." Todd felt around his pockets, before shrugging.

"This is our first time, ma'am." Kate said.

"Do you have any… Guardians, that could help you out, little ones?"

"No, but we have 30 bucks. Could you just have us buy tickets?"

"No, sweetie, you order the tickets online."

"But can we buy the tickets in PERSON?"

"No. Sorry honey." The old woman leaned above the twins. "NEXT!"

"URGH!" Kate grinded her teeth. "Great! Now what?!"

"We sneak in." Todd held up the Splicatrix. "That's what we do."

"How?" Kate cocked her head. "People are totally gonna see."

"Well, maybe." Todd thought for a second. "What if we appeared in the bathroom? Nobody would notice."

"Yeah, good plan, dude, but HOW would we get there? None of your guys can teleport."

"Then it's time to find someone who can." Todd said, activating his Splicatrix.

He grabbed Kate's arm, and they slid into the bushes, next to the fence of the zoo. The holographic ring popped up, but Todd pressed the 'options' icon. He scrolled down the menu, and found the 'codes' app. He activated it, and found a row of 10 zeros. Rearranged the numbers in different combinations, squinting at them.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked.

"Gonna try to unlock a new alien. Hopefully one that can teleport."

"Sweet." Kate grinned. "This is gonna be easy."

"I dunno." Todd shook his head. "Something tells me this menu isn't just for aliens… What the-?"

Todd arranged the code '7122693,' and as soon as he entered it, the Splicatrix beeped, and emitted a message. "Randomizer mode unlocked. Randomizer mode activated."

"Randomizer…?" Todd gulped, before there was a bright flash of light.

"Upgrade?" He asked, confused.

"Wait!" Kate thought. "This is good! Boost me over, then turn into liquid, and slide under the fence!"

"Okay…" Upgrade said, tossing Kate over the fence, and sliding under the fence.

"Huh." He said, thinking. "Well, as long as it just turns me back to human, We'll be fine."

"Yeah, maybe, but what about everyone else at the zoo?"

"Oh, crap." Upgrade said.

Upgrade became liquified, and slid into the boys bathroom, and opened the door.

"Here's the plan." Kate said, checking her shoulder to make sure nobody was looking. "I'm gonna go try and figure out what those missiles were about, while you figure out this whole 'Randomizer' thing, and find your friends, which I assume you knew were here."

"Got it." Todd said, giving a thumbs-up, as Kate slammed the door shut.

Kate ran back to the main part of the zoo, and saw what looked to be a circus. It was the largest building here, so it could have easily covered any missile-launching device.

"That's gotta be where it is." Kate said, and ran over to the circus, quickly.

()

"Kate!" A transmission from Todd had connected with the Unitrix. "Kate, can you hear me?"

"Yeah? Kate asked. "Could you keep it down? I'm right in front of where I think those missiles came from, what is it?"

"I just transformed!"

"No way." Kate sighed. "Todd, it hasn't even been 10 minutes."

"I know!" Todd said. "I tried to press the middle of my symbol to turn me back to human, but it just turned me into another alien! This time it's BlitzMouth!"

"That's… Bad." Kate gulped. "Maybe just wait it out. Hopefully, the Randomizer doesn't just keep you alien, right?"

"I'm pretty sure it's an app on the Splicatrix. If I could turn back to human, I might be able to turn it off, but how long am I gonna have to wait for THAT to happen?!"

"Look, just wait it out, okay?!" Kate said. "I'm gonna be in a crowd of people, so try not to call me again, unless you wanna blow our cover, please?!"

"Okay…" The transmission ended.

Kate sighed. This day was getting complicated. But, she was finally standing outside of the circus. Walking inside of it, she saw that it was completely empty, and dark. It looked like it was closed, but there was nothing keeping her out. Kate gulped, and continued into the tent, cautiously. Then, there was a loud tear, and BlitzMouth fell from the ceiling, and landed in front of Kate.

"GAH!" She shouted, jumping back. "Todd? What are you doing here?"

"Shhh…" BlitzMouth said. "Call me BlitzMouth, okay? Let's not go revealing my alter-ego, okay?"

"Alright, fine, but WHAT are you doing here!?"

"There was a line at the bathroom, so I had to get out of there before they brought back a security officer, or something."

"Okay." Kate shook her head. "I guess you're helping me investigate too, right?

"Investigating a missile silo disguised as a circus… Heck yeah!" BlitzMouth pumped his fist in the air, as his Omnitrix symbol began beeping, transforming him into:

"Aw man!" He said, stomping the ground. "I'm OverRoot!"

"Okay." Kate gulped. "This is officially bad."

"What are we gonna do?!" OverRoot said, panicked. "What if I NEVER turn human again?!"

Kate slapped OverRoot in the face. "Will you get a grip?!"

"Okay. Yes. Get a grip. Duh." OverRoot shook his head back and forth.

Kate and OverRoot snuck around the circus's stage, and into a room labeled 'employee's only.' OverRoot grew several large roots out of the ground, and forced them to tear the door from it's hinges, and threw it aside. He and Kate high-fived, and they snuck into the room, only to see a strange-looking man in a room, with several hundred people, who were each sitting at desks, asleep. The man was wearing large, puffy pants, and a circus vest, with pale, white skin, and red hair, and finally he was also wearing a top-hat. He turned around, and stared at Todd and Kate.

"Well, well!" He said, grinning. "Hiya, kid, and… Thing! My name's Zombozo! I'm teaching a class on how to be happy, since these schmucks are apparently from frowny-ville!"

Kate and OverRoot's jaws dropped to the floor. They expected something weird, but this was far weirder.

"Uh, yeah. Look, we wanted to ask about whether or not you knew anything about, you know, the missiles the zoo was firing at us earlier." Kate said, still dumbfounded.

"Well, then you should ask the guy who fired them, not me!" Zombozo grinned. "Now look, this place is labeled employees only, and your not an employee. So do you wanna be one, or were you kids just leaving?" Zombozo grinned, revealing dozens of sharp, yellow teeth.

Kate and OverRoot both recoiled in disgust. They both looked at each other. Neither of them really knew how to respond to this whole thing.

"Uh… Hey, if you're teaching a class, why are all your students so BORED?" Todd asked, curious.

Zombozo frowned. "Well, if I'm gonna teach a class on happiness, I need theirs, obviously.

"Oh, wow." Kate gulped. "That really sounds like a 'You know too much, so now I'm gonna kill you line.' "

"Something like that." Zombozo turned to the back of the class, looking at a tall woman, with long, orange hair, with black balls at the end of each, thick strand. "FrightWig, baby, would you kindly initiate these children into our class?"

FrightWig stood up, and shot out a dozen strands of hair at the twins. Kate jumped out of the way, but OverRoot shot several vines back at her, entangling the hair. FrightWig gasped in confusion, and while the chance was still open, OverRoot grabbed a desk, and threw it at FrightWig. She saw this, though, and chopped it in half with her remaining hair, sending splinters all over the room.

"Oh dear me!" Zombozo feigned shock. "This is getting messy!" He turned to a large, muscular man, with a fingernail on his head. "ThumbSkull, would you kindly take this little scuffle outside?"

The man nodded, and grabbed both OverRoot and FrightWig, and threw them both through wall that Zombozo's chalkboard was on, demolishing both the wall, and the board. Kate ran out of the room after them. Zombozo walked over to ThumbSkull, and slapped his head.

"Next time, try not to throw your fellow co-worker through the wall TOO!" Zombozo shouted. "Now get out there, and take care of those delinquents!"

"Fine." ThumbSkull muttered, and walked through the wall.

"Ugh." Lastly, Zombozo turned to a bald man, with a few strands of hair on his head, and weird, bulging eyes. "Hey, AcidBreath. Go make sure ThumbSkull doesn't forget his head, will you?"

"Yes, sir!" AcidBreath jumped onto Zombozo's desk, and threw the hole after them.

Zombozo shook his head. "Seriously. How hard is it to find good help these days?"

()

"GAH!" OverRoot shouted, tumbling onto the ground, as ThumbSkull lumbered over him. "You're strong, huh?"

OverRoot created several vines, which grabbed ThumbSkull's ankles, and lifted him into the air, before slamming him back into the ground, then back again, then forwards, then back, then forwards, before finally throwing ThumbSkull into the seats, breaking the ones he fell on.

"And let that be a lesson to you!" OverRoot said. He tapped his Omnitrix symbol's middle, emitting a flash of blue light, and becoming:

"REFRACTOR!" He shouted, just as AcidBreath jumped over to him, and breathed acid on him from mid-air.

Refractor created a diamond shield, and used it to shield himself from the acid, before he burst out of it, the impact being enough to send AcidBreath flying several yards backwards. Kate, meanwhile, had managed to run around the battle, and saw FrightWig standing in front of her. FrightWig smirked, and grabbed Kate with her hair, holding her upside down.

"Well, you two certainly are very flexible, aren't you?"

"You could say that…" Kate muttered, and mutated her arm into HeatBlast's, burning FrightWig's hair, which Kate used to front flip out of, and kick FrightWig in the face.

"You little brat!" FrightWig shouted, and tore out several seats with her hair, before throwing them at Kate.

Kate transformed her arms into FaceBall's, and fused her arms into a giant baseball bat, and hit the seats off elsewhere in the circus. FrightWig turned back to Kate, and scowled at her, before roundhouse kicking her into the wall.

"The hair doesn't make the lady." FrightWig said, cracking her knuckles.

"Nope." Kate said, mutating her arms into HandyMan's. "The HANDS do!"

Kate grabbed FrightWig's ankles, and threw her backwards into the wall. FrightWig groaned, as a chair fell from it's stand, and hit her in the head, knocking her unconscious. Kate grinned, and ran back to Refractor, who was in the middle of having a full-fledged boxing match with ThumbSkull, with AcidBreath also attacking him. Refractor grabbed ThumbSkull, holding him over his head, and threw him into AcidBreath as they both yelled. The goons got up to fight again, but Refractor encased them in a diamond Ball, which Kate picked up, and drove into the ground. Refractor and Kate both fist-bumped each other.

"That's one ugly snow-globe." Kate joked.

"Yeah. But it's not over until we take down the Zombozo."

"Agreed." Kate grinned.

()

The twins both sprinted back into the staff room, but couldn't find Zombozo. Refractor's timer also ended, and was changed into SillyClone. He sighed in annoyance. SillyClone split into 5, and they split up to search the classroom. Kate, meanwhile, checked up on the unconscious students. Their bodies were cold, and pale. Whatever Zombozo had been doing, it must have involved some kind of body part… Was it actually possible…

"Hey, SillyClone?" Kate asked, turning to him. "Do you actually think Zombozo found a way to steal these guys's happiness… ?"

"No way!" The first SillyClone said, who was pulling on books on the bookshelf.

"You can't just TAKE somebody's emotion!" The second SillyClone replied, searching the teacher's desk.

"Well, maybe all of them, but not just a single one, right guys?" A fourth SillyClone asked, swinging back-and-forth on a ceiling lamp.

"How would I know?" The second one asked, now spinning around in the chair.

"I'm not getting anywhere with you guys." Kate sighed, turning back to the desks, before she gasped.

"What? What is it?!" The SillyClonse asked, running to Kate.

"It's… It's your friends."

The SillyClones became on, and he looked at the two kids in front of her, both wearing sweatshirts, Casey wearing a green one, and Brendon wearing a navy-blue one. He turned back to Kate, astounded.

"Yeah. It's them, alright… What are they doing HERE?"

"Probably wanted to see the circus, but got roped into Zombozo' stupid class."

"Geez." SillyClone sighed. "And, of course, I'm stuck as an alien, and they're unconscious. I guess we really had no point coming out here."

"Don't say that." Kate said. "We're gonna figure all this out."

"We'd better." SillyClone mumbled.

The classroom shook, interrupting the conversation. The floor split into 4 segments, and Zombozo rose out of the ground, attached to a large, metal cable. He had a large, maniacal grin, and as glowing a sickly green.

"Well, 'ello there, my little snoopers…" He said. "Looks like you just couldn't get enough of me, could you?"

"Nope!" Kate said, mutating her arms into BlitzMouth's. "In fact, we decided to send you into retirement!"

"Interesting… Well, no matter. You can never have too much happiness, I always say!"

Kate yelled, and dug her claws into two desks, and used them as boxing gloves. She ran at Zombozo, and began swinging at him, while Zombozo dodged the blows. Eventually, Kate leapt at him, and clapped the desks together, causing Zombozo to shout in pain, before he swung a tentacle at the, and she hit the bookshelf with a 'smack.' SillyClone multiplied himself into 10, and they surrounded Zombozo, before they ran at the machine, and pulling pieces off of it, and punching, and headbutting the machine.

"STOP THAT! I paid good money for this machine, you infants!" Zombozo yelled, grabbing the SillyClones, and sucking the happiness from them, before throwing their lifeless bodies to the floor.

"NO!" Kate yelled, before she looked up at Zombozo. "Okay, that's it, you clown." Kate growled. "You're going down!"

She grabbed Zombozo by the shoulders, and forcefully disconnected him from the machine, and threw him into the middle of the circus stage, just as a lion was pawing at it's cage. Zombozo grinned, and opened the cage, immediately.

"Okay, kitty!" He said. "Go take care of those little brats for me, okay?"

The lion just looked at him. Zombozo stuttered.

"W-well?!" He shouted. "Go eat those little shape-shifting brats!"

The lion just walked over to Zombozo, licked him, and then walked off. Zombozo screamed in frustration, and saw a whip next to the cage, and he grinned.

()

"HYU!" Yunai yelled. "Hyu, are you okay?"

Hyu looked at himself. He was back to human, and wearing his super-suit. He tried to ask what was going on, but couldn't get the words out. Yunai filled him in.

"I took care of Zombozo's machine, and now everybody's souls should be returning, I think. I turned my head into GreyMatter's, and fixed your Splicatrix, by the way."

"Nice." Hyu mumbled. "What would I do without you?"

"Probably die." Yunai shrugged. "Need a hand?"

She helped Hyu up, and the 2 exited into the circus, only to see Zombozo desperately trying to tame a lion with a whip, and failing miserably.

"Come on, nice cat!" He shouted. "Just eat the kids, how hard is that?!"

He whipped the lion directly, and the lion yowled in pain. It turned around, and swatted Zombozo to the floor, as Yunai walked over, and trapped him using Refractor's diamonds. She grinned. As Yunai turned around, she saw Hyu, petting the lion, and giving it hugs.

"Hyu, what are you doing with that thing?!"

"Aw don't worry Sis!" Hyu assured her. "It's tamed! Can we keep it?! Pretty please?!"

"Alright. I'll go find a leash for it. Also, your friends are over there, waking up." Yunai pointed to the classroom. "Why don't you go say hi? Maybe try and fix the wounds?"

"I dunno." Hyu sighed. "What if they don't wanna be my friend again?"

"Ask them why." Yunai said, turning around. "At least then you'll know."

Hyu nodded, deactivated his suit, and walked back to the classroom.

()

Outside the Zoo, Kate was explaining the Zombozo disaster to a security guard, who nodded, and took a few other officers with him to go check it out. Kate turned after them, to see Todd walking towards her.

"So?" Kate asked. "How'd it go?"

"Brendon actually said he missed me. Casey begrudgingly said maybe I could hang out with them sometime!" Todd said, fist-pumping. "So, I'd say alright."

"Aw, Todd." Kate smiled. "I'm so happy for you."

"Yeah… So, what's the deal with the lion?"

"Apparently, they couldn't get him to do tricks. And, since he was the fake circus's only animal, They actually let me keep him, especially after the whole Zombozo thing!"

"So, are you telling me, that we have a pet lion?!" Todd said, jumping up and down.

"Yep."

"Awesome! … Wait, what are we gonna do about Fluffy?" Todd asked, concerned.

"Duh, we put Fluffy in the kennel, and keep this guy on a tight leash, until we have this whole thing figured out. We're not keeping in the house, though."

Todd smiled, before looking at the lion's collar. " 'Mr. Toodles?' "

"If you're making fun of his name, I will sic him on you." Kate grinned evilly.

"I'm not!" Todd shouted.

"Good." Kate turned around, only to see Matheo getting off of a pirate ship, with turbines, and helicopter blades, which promptly soared off into the clouds. Matheo then turned around to see the twins, and nodded his head at them.

"Hey, big M!" Kate said, waving at him. "Where were you?!"

"Eh." Matheo shrugged. "It's a long story."

"We went to the zoo, and fought a zombie-clown and his circus freaks." Todd said.

"And we got this awesome lion out of it!" Kate pointed at Mr. Toodles.

"A LION?!" Matheo shouted, and fainted.

"After everything that's happened this past month, how did THAT scare him?" Todd asked.

"I dunno, maybe it's a phobia?" Kate guessed, as Mr. Toodles licked Matheo's face.


	13. O13: Day of the WormHoles!

Todd Harrison was looking at Mr. Toodles, the Harrisons's very own pet lion, playing in his wildlife reserve, which Matheo, his twin brother, had gracefully built for him. He was licking a chew toy, and hugging it close to his chest. Todd was scrolling through the apps on his Splicatrix. Apparently, there were apps for all sorts of things, such as telling time, a GPS, and even a digital tracking system, though he had no clue how to even activate such a thing.

"This is pretty sweet." Todd grinned. "I bet Matheo can't do half of this stuff."

The door to the reserve was flung open by Kate Harrison, Todd's twin sister. She was extremely panicked, and was covered in smoke and dust. She shook the particles off of her, before she stared at Todd.

"Dude, what are you doing HERE?!" She shouted. "The Museum is being messed up, big time!"

"Which museum?!" Todd asked, excitedly, jumping up and down.

"The one you and Matheo got your Omnitrixes from!"

"Awesome!" Todd looked down at his Splicatrix, with a cocky grin. "Time to test out the new-and-improved 'Omni-Kix!' "

Kate nodded, and the two tapped their index fingers to the middle of their respective Omni-Cores, which spun around 180 degrees, before coating their bodies in Matheo's super suits. Hyu felt his body. There were no missing limbs, no missing anything. The suit had been transferred to his suit with no mishaps. Yunai cracked her knuckles.

"You ready to go take… Uh… Wait a minute." Yunai squinted at the TV news station covering the incident. "Is that…?"

"What's the deal?" Hyu asked, impatiently, walking to the screen, before he stopped. "Whoa. Matheo… Uh, Besu's already there."

"Yeah, and he's having trouble! Let's go!"

"Okay, but first, what's going down this time? What are we attacking?!" Hyu shouted after her.

Yunai grew two large wings on her back. "Some kind of blob guy. When you get there, you can ask HIM. Now come on!"

She took off, and Hyu dialed in XLR8, slamming the core down, and emitting a flash of blue light.

()

The Splicatrix sank into Hyu's arm, and veins ran all over it, and up to his face, transmogrifying his face, making it blue, with black lines running from his forehead to his chin. His legs became long, and his feet grew wheels on their soles, and finally, 3 long claws grew out of his hands. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he threw his visor down.

()

"XLR8!" He said quickly, before sighing. "I haven't used this guy too often… Time to make up for that!"

XLR8 speed off, out of the driveway, jumping onto a building's wall, sprinting to the top of it's ceiling in seconds, parkouring over to another building in the blink of an eye. When he reached Yunai, he slowed down, and activated his Com-Link, and messaged her.

"Hey, sis!" XLR8 said, keeping his focus on the perilous drops ahead of him. "The base is outside the city to the right! We should probably turn any second now!"

"I was on the trip too, dude." Yunai said. "I'm just trying to see if it's escalated outside of the base."

"Huh?" XLR8 asked, almost tripping over a pipe in confusion. "Why?"

"To keep you distracted!" Yunai soared down, grabbing XLR8's neck, and throwing him into the concrete road below.

"UNGH!" As XLR8 laid, struggling to move, Yunai glided to the ground, and mutated her arms into FourArm's, before she grabbed a nearby bench, and broke it in half of XLR8's head, knocking him unconscious.

"Nighty-night, you annoying little agent."

()

When Hyu awoke, he was still human, and being carried across a desert. He couldn't move his arms, or his legs, but his Splicatrix did have a large, metal cover, making it useless. He was being carried by a large man in black clothing, with a bald head.

"Ow… My head…" Hyu said, apparently still being able to talk.

"I'd quit blabbering if I was you, kid." The man said. "It's not gonna get you anywhere."

Yunai was walking alongside, glaring at Hyu and the man, with her arms crossed. They had reached the base, and Hyu was thrown to the ground, Yunai still keeping a very close eye on him, and scowling at him. The large man opened the gate, before he grabbed Todd again, and dragged him into the base.

"Why?" Hyu asked, meeting Yunai's eyes.

"Shut your trap." Yunai replied, and kicked him in the head. "You had this coming."

They entered the museum lobby, and the large man slid Hyu across the glossy floor, and a foot came down on his side. Legladon's face leaned down out of the shadows.

"Hello, Harrison." He grinned. "I see your still wearing that stolen incrimination on your arm."

"Who are you, again?" Hyu asked, confused. "I wanna say… Animo. You're Animo, right?"

"Don't be a wiseguy, kid." Legladon sighed, and stomped his foot on Hyu's shoulder. "It'll never get you anywhere."

"It got me this far…" Hyu groaned.

"Admirable, sure." Legladon admitted. "But this is as far as you go."

Legladon unsheathed a rifle, and pointed it at Todd's face. He smirked, before Besu kicked the rifle to the ground, and uppercut Legladon into the air.

"Stop this Legladon." Besu groaned, holding up his Optitrix. "I'm going easy on you. Don't change that."

"That's your problem, kid." Legladon sighed, and pointed to Besu. "Yunai, eliminate this bug."

Yunai ran at Besu, before she mutated her hands into giant, orange, furrly limbs, with sharp claws at the ends. She swung at Besu, who barely dodged out of the way.

Hyu saw what was happening, and tried to stand up, but it was impossible. He was stuck, watching his own siblings murder each other. This was it. And after they were done, he was next. It was all over, unless Hyu could somehow intervene.

"YUNAI!" Hyu shouted, to no avail. "Yunai, come on! Whatever you think this is helping, it's not!"

Yunai didn't listen, instead grabbing a computer from behind a desk, and smashing it into Besu's face, causing him to fly back several feet.

"Yunai, stop! He's your brother! What's even going on with you?! You're not being mind-controlled, that's for sure!"

Yunai stopped, and slowly looked at Hyu.

"You're not being mind-controlled at all, are you? Because you still talk! And your strategies are pretty much the same, too!"

Yunai nervously looked at Legladon, who was fuming, now. He screamed in frustration, and took out a small remote, hitting a blue button on it, causing her body to be consumed in electricity. Yunai screamed in pain, before she started yawning. Legladon stared at her in confusion, before he realized that she had mutated her hand into PlugNPlay's, and was absorbing the energy. She fired it back at Legladon, who yelped, and jumped out of the way.

"Yeah, thanks for blowing my cover, dude." Yunai sighed, glaring at Hyu.

"I… Did, huh?"

"Yeah."

"What were you trying to accomplish anyways?"

"I just wanted to figure out what his plan was, but no luck on that road."

Hyu heard a thump in the distance, then a few seconds later. Then, a large, green tongue shot threw the ceiling, before a giant, mutated frog, with spikes on it's back fell from the ceiling, and Dr. Animo floated down, with a jetpack on his back, grinning evilly.

"You wanted to know of his PLANS, children?!" Animo asked, loudly.

"How… How did you even hear-?"

"THIS beauty was his plan!" Animo cried, pointing to the frog, who yawned.

"Kate…" Hyu whispered to Yunai. "I. Can't. Move."

"Got it." Yunai said, picking him up, and mutating her legs into XLR8, and speeding behind the desk, dropping Hyu off. "Don't mov-!"

Yunai was interrupted by the desk being ripped off it's hinges, as the frog threw it into the wall with it's tongue.

"How touching." Animo said, impatiently. "Well, you two have your emotional last words... My pet desires his LUNCH!"

"GO, GO!" Hyu yelled, as the frog shot it's tongue at them.

Yunai threw a piece of debris at it, before grabbing Hyu, and speeding away. She ran up the wall, and across the ceiling, dropping Hyu off next to a bench, before she ran over to Besu, and pulled him out from under a pile of rubble.

"Besu!" Yunai shouted, slapping him across his face. "Come on, Besu, wake up!"

"Okay, fine!" Besu shouted dusting himself. "So much for a dramatic reveal..."

"Feeling much less confidant now, aren't we?" They heard a voice say, as Legladon sauntered towards the triplets.

"If you're looking for an admission of defeat, dude." Hyu groaned. "You're looking at the wrong kids."

"Now that's a statement I agree with." Besu said, activating his Optitrix, and becoming: "GoldenGuy!"

GoldenGuy activated his hoverboard, and flew under the Mutant Frog's chin, before he upprercut it, sending it rolling onto it's back.

"Nice job, Besu!" Hyu cheered from behind his corner.

"Dude, either do something, or shut up!" Besu yelled back at him. "... Uh, thanks, though."

Hyu sighed, and focused all of his will power on moving his right arm, and barely managed to make it twitch. He gasped, and, after much concentration, managed to turn himself onto his back. Hyu barely lifted his Splicatrix up, activated it, and exploded into a flash of blue light, and emerging as:

"AMPHIBIAN!" He yelled, and became intangible, flying up to the chandelier on the roof, before he became tangible again, causing it to explode, and dimming the room.

Fortunately for him, though, Amphibian was capable of seeing in the dark, and so flew into Animo's jetpack as well, causing it to short-circuit, and send both it, and Animo, flying up into the ceiling, and exploding. Animo fell to the ground.

Yunai on the other hand, was dueling Legladon, who had found a rather large laser-rapier, and was attacking Yunai with it.

"You little thieves!" Legladon shouted at the top of his lungs, attacking her angrily. "Those Omnitrixes were MINE! They have been for 30 years!"

"What do you even mean?!" Yunai asked, tearing ceiling tiles out of the floor, and throwing them at him.

"Do you actually think that your brothers were the first Omnitrix wielders?!" He scoffed. "Not a chance."

"So there were other people who used them in the past?!" Yunai kicked Legladon in the ankles, but he recovered, and stabbed at her with the rapier. "You expect me to believe that?!"

"It's true!" Legladon shouted. "I unlocked a whole 16 aliens on there, before it stopped working, and fell off my arm!"

"Well, if you didn't accomplish anything with it, then I guess that explains why I ain't never heard of you!"

"How DARE you!" Legladon screamed, and ran at Yunai.

In response, she kicked him in the face, and pushed off of him, sending him to the ground. "Sorry to break it to you, bro, but the Harrison triplets are the only ones with Omnitrixes, no two ways about it."

"Sorry to burst your bubble." A new, young voice said from behind her.

Yunai turned around, and looked down, to see an 11-year-old, looking back at her, wearing a white T-shirt with a vertical black stripe in the middle, and baggy green cargo pants. He had emerald green eyes, and scruffy brown hair, and, most noticeably, a device on his left wrist resembling Matheo's Optitrix, but with a green hourglass symbol, and white tubes, instead of red.

"Name's Ben Tennyson." He said, looking at Kate. "I'll cut to the chase. I'm pretty sure I'm from another dimension.

"How…?" Yunai asked in confusion.

"Look out!" Ben grabbed Yunai's arm, and pulled her out of the way, as the mutant frog was thrown past him.

GoldenGuy shouted out, pumping his fists in the air, before he looked at Ben. "Who's this kid?"

"Ben Tennyson. Nice to meet you…"

"Besu. Or 'GoldenGuy,' in this form."

"Besu, huh? Let me give you a tip, go with Besu. 'GoldenGuy' is a terrible name."

"You want good alien names?" Besu scoffed. "Talk to Hyu. He keeps saying I should call this guy 'MinerAll,' or something like that."

"MinerAll." Ben nodded his head. "You should definitely go with that."

"Noo…" Besu groaned. "You're just as annoying with names as him..."

Besu ran after the mutant frog, as Ben turned back to Yunai, shrugging. "What's HIS deal?"

"Who knows?" Yunai looked around for Hyu. "Look… How DID you get to this dimension, anyways?"

"Well, the last thing I remember, I was sitting in the back of the RustBucket, and my Omnitrix started talking about how it had 'connected with another specimen,' and boom, I'm helping you guys fight… Is that Dr. Animo with an exploding jetpack?"

"So, one of US teleported you here… But how...?"

"We'll figure that out later." Ben said, patting Yunai's shoulder. "For now… It's HERO TIME!"

Ben popped up his Omnitrix's core, and slammed it back down, emitting a bright flash of green light.

()

Veins ran up ben's arm, and his eyes receded into his face, while a much larger eye appeared on his chest. 2 large, fleshy ears grew out of the top of his head. As well as this, smaller eyes appeared all around his body, and an Omnitrix symbol appeared on his belt, and he shot green lasers out of his many eyes.

()

"EYEGUY!" He yelled, and ran at the Mutant Frog, who growled at the heroes, before leaping onto the ceiling, before jumping back at EyeGuy.

EyeGuy mergde his eyes into a large eye on his chest, which fired a gigantic beam into the frog's mouth, exploding it back, into the wall at the opposite end of the museum. While this was happening, several dozen men in black suits swarmed around the heroes, and began pointing pistols at them. A man in white, powered up armor glared at them all, and his gauntlets became electrified. He shouted out a battle cry, and ran at the heroes, before Amphibian flew out of the ground, and short-circuited his armor, forcibly freezing the man in place, as he fell to the ground. The soldiers kept guards kept surrounding the heroes regardless, until…

"SHCLUP!" A massive wave of guards were swept off of the floor, before being brutally smashed into the floor by the mutant frog, before slowly pulling the still moving bodies it's mouth, slurping all the while.

"Oh, beyond gross." EyeGuy said, recoiling.

"I would have preferred literally ANY other type of help." GoldenGuy agreed.

"We have a code red!" A guard yelled into his earpiece, and they began shooting at the frog, practically ignoring the heroes.

"I think that's our ticket out of here." GoldenGuysaid, pointing at the door.

"No way!" Eyeguy said. "Those guys are no match for that frog-thing! We're gonna have to take it down sooner or later, and I'm saying sooner. You guys in?"

"Oh, I'm gonna regret this." Yunai sighed.

"Heck yeah, we're in!" Amphibian said, turning the symbol to select an alien. "Let me just splice with… Ah, how about CannonBolt?"

"Oh, good choice for a fusion." EyeGuy said, already shooting lasers at the Mutant Frog.

"You can say that again!" Amphibian shouted, and slammed his Omnitrix symbol, becoming engulfed in blue light.

()

Amphibian's Omnitrix symbol grew 4 spikes, resembling an 'X,' and his tentacles became extremely flat, paper-like limbs. His eyes became scribbly, and drawn-on-looking, before finally, 3 long paper spikes grew out of his back.

()

"BoltPhibbian!" He said, before he looked at himself. "Wait… I guess… AmpCut?"

"But how is that possible?" Yunai asked, confused. "I thought you could control that whole fusion thing?"

"So did I!" AmpCut said.

"Unless…" Eyeguy suggested, cautiously. "You weren't supposed to be doing that, and it's finally taken a toll on the Splicatrix?"

The triplets looked at each other in silence.

"Well, that's awfully specific!" AmpCut shouted, before the Splicatrix began beeping pink. "...But also correct..."

The Splicatrix gave off an electric signal, before a small, black sphere was extruded from AmpCut's Omnitrix symbol, and levitated towards the middle of the room.

"I think I know how Ben got here… The Splicatrix's malfunctions must have done it!" GoldenGuy yelled before he was slowly lifted off the ground. "AGH!"

"Hold on!" Yunai said, and grabbed onto some exposed rebar from where the desk was torn out, and mutated her arm into OverRoot's stretching out and Grabbing GoldenGuy, who was quickly being pulled into the black hole.

"This is bad!" AmpCut yelled, before he was suddenly transformed back into human. "Oh boy."

Yunai barely managed to grab Hyu, and pulled him back out of the exit, as EyeGuy dived out of the building with them. He looked at Hyu, as the heroes were running away from the building which was quickly exploding.

"Oh boy." He said. "Bad time to time out, man."

"You think?" Hyu replied, annoyed.

"I got you guys!" Yunai shouted, mutating her arms into FourArm's and her legs into XLR8's, and speeding off into the distance.

EyeGuy looked behind them, and instantly regretted it, seeing the black hole catching up to them.

"Can't you go any faster?!" He yelled, desperately. "We're gonna be disintegrated!"

Hyu gulped, and opened the apps section on his Splicatrix, scrolled over to codes, and began typing in random combinations, as quickly as he could. Hopefully one of his guys could contain a black hole, otherwise, he was screwed.

"No, I can't!" Yunai shouted back. "Because I'm only 1/3rd XLR8, so I can only go 1/3rd as fast! Duh!"

"Oh crap. We're really gonna die." GoldenGuy said, blankly.

Hyu realized this was taking too long. He'd just have to go with some random alien, and hope for the best.

"No, we're not." Hyu said, faking confidence.

"And what makes you say that?!" EyeGuy asked, delirious.

"Because… I'm gonna stop it. Yunai, when I say 'now,' let me go, okay?!"

"Okay…?" Yunai said confused. "Just hope you have a plan."

Hyu activated his Splicatrix, and spun the dial to Upgrade. He gulped, but shrugged, and slammed his core down.

()

The Splicatrix sank into Hyu's arm, and veins ran all over it, and up to his face, transmogrifying his face, making it blue, with black lines running from his forehead to his chin. His legs became long, and his feet grew wheels on their soles, and finally, 3 long claws grew out of his hands. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he threw his visor down.

()

"XLR8?" He asked, before sighing.

EyeGuy sputtered in confusion. "And what's HE supposed to do?!"

"No idea, but we're about to find out!" XLR8 shouted, jumping out of Yunai's arm, and sprinting directly at the black hole, and picking up speed rapidly.

"WHAT is he doing?!" GoldenGuy asked, confused.

"No clue, but I've got to help him out." Yunai said, dropping the heroes, and running full speed at the black hole, before morphing the rest of her body into a female XLR8.

GoldenGuy and EyeGuy both nodded, and hit their Omnitrix symbols, transforming into XLR8's, themselves. Todd sent a message to the other XLR8's.

"Guys, I've got a REALLY crazy idea, but if this it's gonna work, we have to be at different spots of the black hole, and running around it at different place, not all in one place. In other words, spread out from each other, but stay close to the hole!"

"Got it!" Matheo, Kate, and Ben all said, spreading out around the black hole, and slowly beginning to shrink it back down.

"What are we even doing?!" Ben asked, in confusion.

"The combined forces of all 4 XLR8's are actually somehow reversing time." Matheo explained. "Be it in this one spot, or the entire planet, like in Super-Man, I don't know, but it hardly matters!"

"Whatever we're doing, it's working!" Kate shouted excitedly, as the city was slowly rebuilt by their efforts. "We're actually doing it!"

"Don't stop, team!" Todd shouted. "We're almost there!"

Seconds later, the heroes managed to fully force the Black Hole to implode on itself, and disappear for good. They were back at the Base, standing with both Legladon, and Dr. Animo, and the bodies of the guards on the floor.

"Okay, ToadFace!" Ben said, opening his visor. "It's time to finish this."

"Indeed, it is." Animo grinned. "Get these last treats, my pet!"

In response, the toad stuck it's tongue out, and grabbed Lgladon, who let out an audible gasp of fear, before he was pulled into the frog's mouth. Legladon put his hands on the Frog's lips, and tried not to let himself be devoured.

"What's… What's going on?!" Legladon cried. "Animo, what's your fleabrained blob doing now?!"

"Getting rid of you. I'll be the one to take down the Omni-Triplets, not you!"

"NO!" Matheo yelled, sprinting over to Legladon, trying to pull him out. "Come on, Leg! You're not going anywhere!"

"Get off me!" Legladon yelled, trying to swat Matheo away, but he persisted.

"No, Leg. You're my friend…!" Kate, Todd, and Ben ran to Matheo, and helped him pull Legladon out of the Mutant Frog's mouth, and onto the floor.

"But… "

"It was just business, dude." Matheo laughed. "You're still my friend."

"Ugh." Animo groaned. "Fine. I guess you need a bit more persuasion."

Animo whistled loudly, and a fierce-looking lion with glazed eyes broke through the wall, Roaring loudly. It ran at the heroes, who each dived out of the way.

"Don't tell me… Mr. Toodles?!" Todd asked, absolutely heartbroken. "What… How?!"

"Simple, he escaped your wildlife enclosure, and was wandering the streets. I took him in, and gave him some… refinements. Nothing all that complicated, really."

"Hyu, come on. We've gotta do this."

Todd looked down at the Splicatrix symbol on his chest. He saw the different symbols on it, and thought how easy it could be to take down Animo of XLR8, and HeatBlast, or something like that. But, he knew the consequences of doing that. With all this in mind, Todd reluctantly refused to turn the symbol, and slapped the symbol normally, for once, and there was a large flash of blue light.

()

Diamond protrusions shot out of XLR8's back, and his hands became coated in diamonds, as well was his face. He struck a headstrong pose.

()

"Okay, Mr. Toodles." Refractor8 said, running at the rampaging, mutate lion. "You and I are gonna have to have very difficult conversation!"

Refractor8 transformed his hands into diamond mallets, and leapt at the lion, hitting it square in the jaw, and sending it barreling through the door.

Matheo touched his core, and emitted a bright flash of red light.

()

The form of XLR8 dissipated from Matheo's body, and he became human, once again. Slimy ropes tied themselves around Matheo's arms and a large, slender shell formed itself on Matheo's back, and his eyes became elongated stalks. Finally, six cannon-like holes appeared on his chest. He sneezed, before smirking weakly.

()

SnailGuy sprayed slime all over Animo, which quickly froze itself to the ground.

"You stay right there." SnailGuy said, turning back to the frog. "Hey, Ben!"

"Yeah?" Ben asked, still XLR8. "What's up?"

"You ready to take care of this giant frog once and for all?"

"You know it!" Ben said, giving a thumbs-up, and the two lunged at the frog, shouting.

()

Kate, as XLR8, and Refractor8 emerged outside of the museum, staring down Mutated Mr. Toodles, who got up, angrily looking at them.

"Somebody's been a bad kitty." Kate said, and ran around Mr. Toodles so fast, that she created a tornado, which dropped Mr. Toodles onto the floor extremely painfully as soon as it dissipated.

"Likewise." Refractor8 grinned, and wrapped the lion's chest in a diamond cage, before lifting it high up into the air, and throwing it back down.

When the dust settled, Refractor8 and Kate both looked at Mr. Toodles, who was now back to normal, and covered in cuts, and bruises. Refractor8 and Kate both looked at each other, starting to feel a bit of worry. Refractor8 reached out his hand to pet the lion, but Mr. Toodles tried to bite his hand. Since Refractor8's hand was made of diamonds, Mr. Toodles yelped, and ran off into the horizon. Refractor8 and Kate both looked at each other, and silently agreed not to go after it.

()

As Matheo and Ben both exited the museum, now in human form, Matheo was talking to Ben about possible theories about how he was supposed to get back to his dimension.

"I think it's some kind of temporal anomaly." Matheo said. "And since you never activated your Omnitrix after the Black hole was taken care of, I think that as soon as you do, you should be back to where you started, as long as the RV wasn't moving."

"Oh, it wasn't." Ben said, dismissively. "... So, I guess that's it, then, huh guys?" Ben asked, looking at the triplets.

"It was nice working with you, man." Todd said, fist-bumping him.

"Yeah, you guys too." Ben shrugged. "Though, I do kind of wish I had some of your guys's aliens. And gadgets. And mixing DNA together. That seems like it would be kinda cool."

"Well, how about my sample for PlugNPlay?" Todd asked, opening his Splicatrix. "It displays the code here. It would be 3112872."

"Wait, how would you put codes in anything that isn't the Splicatrix?" Kate asked, confused. "Because, that's the only one with a touch screen?"

"It's simple Kate." Ben laughed. "You just have to turn it to the corresponding alien. Takes forever, but…"

Ben's Omnitrix beeped with conformation. "New DNA unlocked."

He grinned back at Todd, just as the Omnitrix's activation began to open a wormhole behind him. "Thanks for that man." Ben said, giving Todd a thumbs-up. "I can't wait to try this one out on the town."

They waved goodbye as Ben walked through the wormhole, and it disappeared, into a flurry of electric bolts, and faded into nothing.

"You know, I like that kid." Todd said, as he began walking home. "He struck a chord with me."

"Yeah, well, that's not the only weird thing involving other Omnitrix users today." Kate said, bringing over an absolutely Legladon from the pretty much demolished museum. "Tell them, Legladon."

"Yes, it's true." Legladon sighed. "I used to wield the Optritrix."

"What…?" Matheo asked, concerned.

"It stopped working one day, as if someone had calibrated it specifically for your DNA, Matheo. Why do you think I became friends with you in the first place?"

"No…" Matheo backed away horrified, before he took off running into the distance.

"Matheo!" Todd shouted, running after him, as Kate gave Lagladon a dirty look.

"It's the truth, alright sweetheart?" Legladon said, sighing. "What do you want from me?"

Kate's eyes ignited with rage, before they died out, seconds later. "Nothing. And yet, you still found some way to disappoint me. Congrats."

Kate ran after her brothers, as Legladon looked at them, before he smirked, then grinned, and chuckled at the triplets's ignorance. And then, he began walking back to the museum.

**(To be continued in: Adventures of the Omni-Triplets: Rebooted!)**


	14. R1: Presentation Issues!

**(Author's Note: I know, I know, this took a while. I came down with a fever while I was writing this, and also had to help out someone with a coding project, too. But now it's finished, so hopefully you guys can forgive the lateness.)**

()

"LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING, YOU CONSTANTLY COLLARLESS CALLIN' CANINES!" Hyu, as Rath, yelled at a nearby van full of barking dogs. "RATH HATES DOGS! BUT HE WOULDN'T HATE THEM NEARLY AS MUCH, IF THEY'D JUST SHADDUP!"

"Rath." Yunai, who was Hyu's twin sister, said as she kicked her way into the driver's seat, and was immediately attacked with a switchblade. "Would it kill you to focus on the mission at hand?!"

"This little girly's goin' down, to CHINATOWN!" The driver said, wearing a mask that resembled the face of a snake, attempting to cut Yunai's hand.

She dodged, before she punched him in the face, shattering the mask into dozens of small, tiny shards. "No thanks, the food there is TERRIBLE. Thanks for the thought, though."

"RATH DON'T CARE, BRO, NOT EVEN ENOUGH TO CARE!"

"That, quite literally, makes no sense." Besu, the third member of the team commented, cheekily, floating into scene on a DIY jetpack, and currently slicing a large hole into the back of the truck. "Are you trying to say 'Oh, I care so little, I don't even care that I don't care,' Or 'I don't care enough to create the necessary dopamine to care?' "

"AND NOBODY, QUITE LITERALLY, CARES ABOUT YOUR JARGON!" Rath shot back, before two small, mounted turrets popped out of the truck's top, and pointed themselves at him. "HA! TINY GUNS! THAT'S RICH! AND POINTLESS! AH-HA-HA-HA!"

As Rath was laughing, the turrets both fired large, glowing explosives into his face, and combusted, sending him flying off of the truck. Rath shot his tail out, and it wrapped around the door-handle of the truck, before he pulled himself back up effortlessly.

"Okay…" Rath said, glaring at the guns. "It's time for you guys to GET JAMMED!"

"Welp, this oughta be interesting." Besu said, flying into his newly made hole.

()

"What are those two doing out there?" Yunai asked herself as she tried to get a feel for the truck. "How do you drive this thing?"

The man next to her was out cold, and holding a walkie-talkie that was receiving a message of an old woman screaming through it. Yunai looked at it, before she picked up the device, and held it next to her head. The woman was currently yelling about how back in her day, a simple truck hijacking wouldn't be enough to even rattle her. Yunai tried to get a word in, to no avail, before she yelped, as she had almost crashed the truck into the side of the building.

"MA'AM!" Yunai yelled, the adrenaline allowing her to cut into the monologue. "Uh… We seem to have a small-"

"Do not interrupt me ever again, you disposable goon!" The lady said, spitting. "I swear, you'll be lucky to be alive after this!"

"Uh… The Katachi League, ma'am." Yunai said, trying to sound manly. "They've stolen our cargo! I'm trying to-!"

Interrupting herself, Yunai smashed the walkie-talkie under her foot, and sighed in relief.

"Who knew trying to talk to your boss could be so STRESSFUL?" Yunai said, half-sympathetic. "I almost feel bad for these guys…"

()

Meanwhile, Besu was currently infiltrating the truck, being careful to be quiet. He was surrounded by angry, barking dogs, all in cages. He picked one of the locks, and let out a small chihuahua, which immediately jumped at him, trying to bite his face. Besu held the dog, and put him back in the cage.

"These guys must be strays." Besu thought to himself, before he looked a couple meters to his left, and saw a box labeled 'Collars.' "Or not… I wonder if that Animo guy's behind this?"

Before he could think about this further, Rath fell through the ceiling, gnawing on a turret gun with his teeth, before he spat it out, and looked at Besu.

"What do you want?" Rath asked.

"Uh…"

"Hold on… I'm actually… Really tired, man." Rath tapped his Omnitrix symbol, and returned to Hyu. "Oh, hey, Besu! What's up?"

"You learn anything up there?" Besu said, cutting straight to the point.

"No, duh." Hyu sighed. "I black out as Rath. You know that."

"Whatever."

There was a loud, clanking sound on the doors behind them, and the twins turned around to see the doors pulled clean off their hinges, only to disappear forever behind the truck. What pulled these hinges off was a humanoid cat, with blue-and-black fur, and purple eyes. This creature was clearly taking a light jog, but was still keeping up with the truck effortlessly.

"... Who-?" Besu began, before the creature leaped into the van, and grabbed his shoulders, before throwing him into the wall of the cargo bay.

"Name's Madeline." She said, a mischievous smirk on her face. "And I've been dying to meet you, Katachi League."

"Okay…" Hyu said, scratching the back of his helmet. "Well, now's not exactly a good time for autographs…"

Madeline walked up to him, before grabbing Hyu's neck, and lifting him into the air. "I'm not here for an autograph."

Hyu kicked at Madeline's face, hitting her square in the jaw, and she let him fall to the ground. Hyu rubbed his neck, groaning, before he sighed, and stood up.

"Okay, then. What ARE you here for, then?"

"Your shape-shifting watches, duh."

"Oh, not a chance!"Hyu said, activating his Splicatrix, and slamming the core down on the first alien he got.

()

Hyu's left arm inflated at an extremely rapid rate, and the rest of his body followed suit, before his eye turned bright yellow, with red shells on the backs of his hands, legs, and his back as well. His mouth became extremely wide, and his teeth became pointed. The Omnitrix symbol was on his chest, and Hyu now began rolling as a red and black ball, before uncurling, and cracking his knuckles.

()

"CANNONBOLT!" He yelled, and curled into a ball, before speeding at Madeline, and knocking her out of the truck.

"Impressive!" Madeline shouted at him, landing on her feet. "But I'm not here to fight, really."

"Too bad!" CannonBolt replied, tearing a Stop sign out of the ground, and throwing it at Madeline. "You want the Omnitrixes? Then you've gotta take the guys who use 'em!"

"Your simplistic worldview is REALLY pissing me off!" Madeline sighed, dodging the sign, and running at CannonBolt.

Madeline's speed caused her to shoot directly into CannonBolt's gut, who promptly pushed her back out, sending her flying a dozen feet.

"Simplistic doesn't mean wrong, dudette!" CannonBolt yelled, fist-pumping.

()

Back on the truck, Yunai was still trying to stop the vehicle somehow, when Besu swung into the passenger's seat. He took one look at how she was driving, and shook his head.

"Have you NEVER driven a car in your life?" He asked, confounded.

"Oh, yeah!" Yunai said, still trying to figure out how to use a blinker. "They just handed out my honorary 10-year-old license a few years ago!"

"Move it, dude." Besu said, as they swapped seats. "I've got this."

"Finally… Huh?!" Yunai stuck her head out of the window, and saw CannonBolt and Madeline fighting. "Holy crap, I've gotta get in on that!"

"HEY!" Besu shouted, angrily turning the truck around. "Where do you think you're going?! I need you to feel inferior to me! YUNAI!"

()

Yunai mutated her back into two large wings, and flew straight at Madeline, landing a swift kick directly on the side of her face. "Loser says 'OW!' "

"OW!" Madeline said, before looking up at Yunai, growling. "Now that's just rubbing salt on the wound…"

"You said it." Yunai shrugged.

"Whatever." Madeline said, dismissively. "You'd be a fool to consider this over… SMOKE BOMB!"

Madeline threw a smoke bomb into the ground, and disappeared in the ensuing cloud of smoke. Hyu and Yunai both coughed, as the dust cleared, and saw that she had disappeared. Hyu turned back to human, snapping his fingers in defeat, just as Besu came screeching to a halt, and hopping out of the truck.

"I think she got away." Yunai sighed.

"What WAS that thing?" Besu said, walking over to his siblings.

"Whatever it was, we can't let it distract us from the fact that we've got a job to do. Let's go." Hyu motioned back to the truck. "We're not doing anything until we've gotten those dogs out of their cages."

"Agreed." Yunai gave a thumbs-up.

()

Later that night, the Triplets had returned to their rooms, now back in their respective human aliases, Todd, Matheo, and Kate. While the other twins were fast asleep, Todd was wide awake, still thinking about his encounter with Madeline.

"It sounded like she had some kinda big plan…" Todd sighed, turning over in his bed.

Todd activated his Splicatrix, and punched in a few codes, but he was hardly having any luck. Still, he'd done a couple of calculations, and found that there were only a million-ish possible combinations, with 9 characters, and 7-character code length. Assuming he stayed persistent, he could easily finish it, until he accidentally moved a digit too high, and it jumped from 9… To 10.

"What the?" Todd asked, sitting straight up in his bed, until he remembered. "Oh, yeah. Each character is just a single alien. That means instead of 1-9, it's… 0 to however many aliens I have… Oh, 17… Ugh."

In annoyance, Todd tried a few more codes, now with double-digits involved, but still, no luck.

"Geez! How many aliens does this thing have-?!"

The door to Todd's room was thrown open, and a tired, annoyed Kate glared at him. "Todd."

Todd pretended to be asleep. It didn't work.

"Todd, I'm serious, if you keep yelling, I'm gonna kill you. It's 10:00, go to bed, NOW."

"... Gonna kill ya..." Todd mimicked. "Yeah, right."

Todd was suddenly grabbed by his ankles, thrown in the air, before being body-slammed back down on his bed, causing a nearby glass of water to spill all over him.

"I'm too tired for this crap." Kate yawned, closing the door.

"Oh, great." Todd sighed, looking at his night-shirt. "Now I'm cold."

He groaned, before realizing there was an 18th slot in his roster. Todd reset the Splicatrix to default mode, and scrolled through the ring, and yes, there was now a hologram of Madeline's species, a male version, with the Omnitrix symbol on it's chest.

"Huh." Todd said, grinning like an idiot. "I've got a new alien!... And Matheo doesn't! Time to never let him live this down."

Both Kate and Matheo kicked Todd's door open.

"TODD!" Matheo yelled. "It's 10 PM!"

"Yeah, for the 2nd time, now!"

"Seriously?" Matheo asked, surprised.

"Yeah, seriously!"

"Well, I'll be."

"Guys, I can explain, I got a new alien, and-!"

"NEW ALIEN?!" Matheo checked his Optitrix, before frowning. "Hey, what the-?! Why didn't I get one?!"

"Just lucky, I guess." Todd said, smirking.

"Okay, now I'm gonna kill him… Tomorrow. Todd, go to bed."

"Fine." Todd said, as his siblings closed the door. "But not before I take this new guy for a test-drive… I've even got a name. CatClaw!"

Todd grinned, and Activated the Splicatrix, swiftly selecting CatClaw, and opening the window. Todd climbed out onto the roof of the house, closing the window behind himself quietly. Next, Todd jumped off the roof, slamming down the OmniCore, exploding in a bright flash of blue light.

()

Blue fur wrapped itself around Todd's hand, and claws grew out of each fingernail. The fur then covered the rest of Todd's body, with two large, black, furry protrusions around his eyes, resembling a mask, of sorts. He spun around in a circle.

()

"CATCLAW!" He said quickly.

CatClaw landed on a single tip-toed foot, and front flipped into a full on sprint, vaulting directly over the fence in front of him. CatClaw ran through the road nearby, and used his claws, and pure speed, in order to climb up, and over, a nearby 8-wheeled semi-truck.

"Awesome!" He yelled, grabbing onto the overhang of a stoplight, swinging around it vertically, and leaping onto a skyscraper, and zooming up the side of it. CatClaw laughed, gleefully. He'd never been so agile in any of his forms before. Up above him, there was a window-washing platform. CatClaw narrowed his eyes, and charged directly through it, causing the platform to explode into a million pieces.

"Huh." He said to himself. "Wonder why there was a platform nobody was-?"

"HELP!" A voice screamed from below CatClaw yelled.

CatClaw skidded to a stop, scratching the glass underneath him, and looked down to see a man, in light construction gear, hanging onto one of the cables that were supposed to support the window-washing platform. CatClaw ran back down the building, grabbing the man, and carrying him down to the front of the building. CatClaw safely dropped the man once they'd arrived at the entry-level.

"Thank you." The man said, before looking at the color of the Omnitrix symbol, which was blue. "Uh… Hyu, right?"

"That's me, bro." CatClaw said, flexing his arm.

"Oh, man. Henry's never gonna believe this. You're his favorite, you know!"

"Henry's… Your kid?"

"That's what they tell me." The man laughed at his own joke. "I'm Rodney, by the way."

"Well, nice to meetcha." CatClaw said.

"Wait... No autograph?" Rodney asked, confused.

"Uh, sure… Oh, sorry about your window-thingy."

"Aw, no problem. I'm sure you had a good reason, being a superhero, and all." Rodney pulled out a blurry picture of Hyu vaulting over a car, as well as a blue pen. "Take your time."

CatClaw nodded, somewhat uncomfortably, and signed the picture, before handing it back to him.

"There you go, and, for real, sorry about this whole thing." CatClaw waved goodbye, before vanishing into the distance.

()

Todd, now a human again, climbed back into his room, before the lights turned on, causing Todd to yelp as he fell face-first into the carpet. He looked up to see both of his siblings looking at him, annoyed.

"Guys!" Todd said, startled. "I didn't know you were up, at…"

Todd looked to the alarm clock on his dresser, which was currently set at 10:25 PM.

"... This time." He smiled sheepishly.

"Seriously, dude, what the heck?" Matheo asked, getting up in Todd's face.

"Back off, bro." Todd sighed, pushing him back. "I wasn't trying to-"

"Oh, we know what you trying to do!" Kate said, piercingly. "You were trying to take down Madeline, without us!"

"Yeah, I was!" Todd said, before he realized he had no clue what they were talking about.

"I knew it!" Matheo said, putting combing his scalp with his hands. "You traitor! You're trying to go solo!"

"Well, wait, guys, I don't-"

"Oh, it's not like THAT?" Matheo said.

"No!"

"... Wait a sec." Kate said, narrowing her eyes. "Do you have a CRUSH on her, bro?"

There was an uncomfortable silence in the air.

"Wha-?" Todd tried to ask.

"Of course!" Matheo shook his head. "Todd always gets hot and bothered around a girl who likes to fight!"

"Do not!" Todd yelled, and jumped at Matheo, as Kate pushed the twins away from each other. "You take that back!"

"Make me!" Matheo stuck his tongue out at Todd.

"Todd, she's a criminal, you know. And isn't she after your Splicatrix, anyways?"

"I don't KNOW!" Todd insisted. "I haven't seen her since the whole truck thing!"

"Yeah, right." Matheo said, impatient. "Madeline's on the news, and you just so happen to disappear at the exact same time. Sure."

"That wasn't Madeline on the news, you dorks!" Todd held out his Splicatrix, and set it to CatClaw's DNA sample. "It was ME."

"Wait, what?!" Matheo grabbed Todd by his shirt. "You tryna tell me you've got 18 aliens to my 16?!"

"Oh, don't get all weird." Todd said, shoving Matheo off of him. "You're a genius, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Enough, you two." Kate said. "It's way too late for this crap. You can talk about it in the morning, yeah?" She yawned, and walked out of the room.

"Seriously?" Matheo whined, as she left. "That's so not fair."

"So, just go type in a couple codes, and you're golden, bro."

"But you've got it easy, because of the touch screen, and-"

"Then, you figure it out, dude." Todd said, pushing Matheo out of his room, and closing the door. "Good night."

()

The next day, Todd was sitting in science class, looking blankly out the window, when his friend, Casey, tapped his shoulder. As Todd looked at him, Casey pointed at his phone, which was showing a video of an alien robbing a gas station in seconds, before replaying the video in slow motion, revealing the culprit was one of CatClaw's species.

"... Madeline." Todd said, quietly.

"Who?" Casey asked, confused.

"Oh." Todd said, not missing a beat. "Madeline's one of Kate's friends. She used to shop at that place all the time."

Todd had gotten awfully good at lying about this stuff. He'd had plenty of experience, though Matheo, oddly enough, seemed to nearly leak the identities of the Katachi league every chance he'd get. Kate was alright, quite a feat, what with her dozen-or-so number of friends.

"Uh, by the way…" Casey said, lowering his voice.

"Madeline's got a boyfriend." Todd said, hoping that was true.

"Shit." Casey sighed.

Todd laughed, uncomfortably. He tapped his fingers on the desk, thoughts of Madeline completely filling his brain, before he raised his hand, as calmly as he could manage. The substitute teacher, Mr. Cramb, nodded at him, before looking at his clipboard.

"Yes, er…" He squinted at it. "Stan, Tim… Ah, Todd?"

"Can I go to the bathroom, please?" Todd asked, feigning the need to relieve himself.

"Can you?" The teacher asked, trying not to burst out into laughter.

"... Er…" Todd scratched his head. "If you'd allow me to? I mean, can I just leave without asking, or-?"

"For god's sake, you're supposed to say 'May I,' kid."

"Oh." Todd tried to pretend he was surprised. "What a concept. Is that a 'yes?' "

"Fine."

Todd exited the class, and ran out of the schoolhouse, activating his Splicatrix, and desperately trying not to turn it to CatClaw. He turned it to CatClaw anyways, and slammed down the core as soon as it popped up, causing himself to explode in a large flash of blue light.

()

Todd's arms became stringy, and green, before inflating to extremely muscular proportions. Todd's legs folded into his crotch, and 3 lanky vines replaced them. Todd's body became slim, and inhuman, riddled with dozens of muscles. Finally, his face became a single, large eye, with 2 horns sticking out on either side, and an Omnitrix symbol on his lower chest.

()

"OverRoot…?" He said, disappointed. "Well, great. How am I supposed to find Madeline now?"

"Is that your plan?" OverRoot heard a sly voice ask from the roof of the school.

"Madeline?!" OverRoot gasped.

"That's right." She landed in front of him, crossing her arms. "Surprised to see me?"

"Well, yeah." OverRoot said. "I didn't think you'd be following me."

"Don't flatter yourself, kid." Madeline laughed. "I'm not following you for any other reason than to dispose of you."

"Oh, really?" OverRoot asked, before reaching to the side, and tearing a lampost out of the sidewalk, and swinging it at Madeline, who jumped into the air, landing a kick on OverRoot's head.

"Really!" She yelled, unsheathing 4 large, jagged claws from her hand, and scratching OverRoot across his chest.

"Argh…!" Yellow liquid began to drip from OverRoot's chest.

"Oh, don't be a drama queen. That wound's only skin-deep."

"The real wound is the fact that you'd actually hurt me." OverRoot shot back, dazed slightly.

"Aw." Madeline grabbed the lampost, and threw it into OverRoot, knocking him into the grass. "How sweet. That oughta make this easy."

OverRoot shot out several vines, grabbing Madeline by her chest, and throwing her through the school's window. "Don't count on it…"

()

Matheo was sitting in the direct middle of his classroom, with each classmate of his each ignoring him. The teacher, Mrs. Glace, was looking at him, with a slight sadness in her face. She walked over to his desk, and saw him sketching blueprints for some new invention. She tapped her fingers on his desk.

"Hey, Matheo." She said, smiling.

"Let me guess, I'm in trouble for not doing the project, right?"

"There… There's no project, Matheo. This is a free period."

"Oh." Matheo said, nodding. "Cool."

"Look, I know that you've had a tough time with your… Parents, and I've been cutting you some slack for that, but you need to learn to start working with others."

"I could never work with these Neanderthals." Matheo sighed.

"Now, now, that's not nice at all."

"Actually, the Neanderthals were possibly more attractive, and by effect, more social, than the humans of the time. I mean it as a jealous compliment, ma'am."

Mrs. Glace stared at him. "Er… Well, I wouldn't know anything about that. I'm an art teacher, not a history teacher."

"Yeah, I feel that." Matheo chuckled. "Sometimes, my siblings think that I can just whip them up a time machine, just because I'm smart. But in reality, I'm more of a… Rocket science guy, than a Quantum Physics guy."

"Well, no matter what scientific field you specialize in, you need to learn to make some friends, young man."

"Miss, I have friends."

"Maybe." Glace smirked. "But I mean real friends. At this school. I think you'd get a kick outta it."

"Doubt it." Matheo shook his head. "Can you leave now?"

"Okay." Glace sighed, turning to help out another student.

Then, suddenly, Madeline was sent flying through the classroom window, landing in the middle of the room, with an angry look on her face.

"It's Hyu!" One of the kids in the back said, pointing at Madeline. "He's even clumsy and uncoordinated!"

"He's gonna destroy the school!" A girl shouted, sprinting to the door. "We gotta get out of here! I'm too young to die!"

"Guys." Matheo said, trying to sound clueless. "This can't be Hyu, because he don't got none of that… circle… thing. On his chest."

"You mockin' me?" A kid with baggy, torn jeans, a stained checkered-shirt, and a backwards red cap asked, glaring at Matheo.

"N-no!" Matheo threw his hands up. "Why, I'd never even dream of such a thing!"

"H-he's got a point." A mexican kid in an orange shirt said, timidly. "Doesn't he usually have, like, a chest badge, or something?"

"Yeah!" Matheo nodded.

"Kind of like that one on your wrist, Matheo." A girl with overalls said, pointing at him.

"W-well, this is just a customization thing!" Matheo said, sweating. "The Omni-Triplets are just a big deal overseas!"

"No, they're not." Mrs. Glace said, her arms crossed. "I'd know. I surf foreign items on Ebay all day, every day. Even at work."

"Okay, maybe you shouldn't say that…" Matheo laughed, nervously.

Madeline's eyes opened. She hissed, loudly, and jumped onto the roof of the classroom, before the ceiling tiles she was latched on to broke into pieces, and she yelped in pain. As this was happening, a large, green hand grabbed onto the windowsill, and OverRoot climbed through the window, before awkwardly gulping, and waving at everyone in the classroom.

"Hey!" A girl yelled, excitedly jumping up and down. "It's Hyu! The REAL one!"

The class, sans Matheo, gathered around OverRoot, and began excitedly asking questions. Matheo groaned, and shoved his way through the crowd, and stared Hyu dead in the eyes. The chatter slowly stopped around them.

"Hey, Hyu. The Blue one." Matheo growled. "Where's Besu?"

Everyone looked at him.

"Uh…" OverRoot chuckled nervously. "He's, uh… Probably at his job at the library, taking care of his wonderful family, namely his wife… Marla."

"Marla?" Matheo asked in surprise.

"Well, yeah." OverRoot shrugged. "I think Besu would really be into a girl named Marla."

"But all women are physically the same, so the name has about as much weight as…I dunno, eye color."

"Well, I don't KNOW." OverRoot said, scratching his head. "Why are we even talking about Besu's wife, anyway?"

"Yeah, loser." A kid with a buzzcut said, shoving Matheo aside.

"I have a question." Madeline said, angrily getting up. "What does it take to get you to see just what's wrong with you?"

"Wha-?" Was all OverRoot could say, before she tackled him through the window.

Matheo wordlessly sprinted out of the classroom. As he did, the class stared at him running off, and looked at one another.

"Okay, NOW I think he's Besu." A boy with an oversized hoodie muttered.

()

"Madeline!" OverRoot yelled, as he managed to pull himself out of the dirt. "Quit this whole fighting me thing!"

"Not happening!" Madeline said through gritted teeth. "Not even close."

She tore a large, novelty rock out of the ground, and threw it at OverRoot, who gulped before touching the middle of his Omnitrix symbol, exploding in a flash of blue light.

()

OverRoot's Head grew three fins on it's top, and sides. His legs became short, and stubby, and 3 green dots appeared in his chest.

()

"OVERCLONE!" He yelled, instantly multiplying himself into 7, each of which grabbed the rock out of the air, before crushing it into fractions of itself.

"What the-?!" Madeline asked in shock. "He can do that?"

"Okay team." The first OverClone said. "Let's pelt this cat."

The OverClones unraveled their arms into dozens of arms, each picking up rocks, and throwing them at Madeline, who effortlessly dodged all of them. She laughed, before roundhouse kicking an OverClone in the face. The other OverClones shot vines at her, wrapping her up, and lifting her off the ground.

"This is OVER, Madeline!" One of the OverClones shouted at her.

"Hardly!" She replied, cutting open the vines, and flipping out of them.

Two of the OverClones had managed to lift a car off the ground, and they threw it at her. Madeline landed on the flying car's hood, scratching at it's inside with her claws, before kicking off of it sending a now flaming car flying at the OverClones, who each gasped with fear. They each merged back into one, and tried to outrun the explosion, only for Yunai to jump in front of the explosion, grabbing OverClone, and tumbling into the grass with him.

"Yunai!" OverClone said, happily.

"Hey." Yunai coughed. "What's up."

"Hey, Cat Lady!" Besu yelled from behind the twins, dialing an alien. "Pick on somebody your own size!"

"I'm not picking on you guys!" Madeline protested. "Quit making me the bad guy!"

"Whatever!" Besu yelled, slamming down the Optitrix core, and becoming consumed by a bright red light.

()

Besu's Optitrix sank into his arm, which became coated in a flesh-metal hybrid. His hands became two halves of a baseball bat, and the top half of his head forced into a baseball cap. Finally, 6 holes replace Besu's face, and an Omnitrix symbol popped itself out of his right shoulder.

()

"FACEBALL!" He yelled, and shot out 6 baseballs at Madeline, who grabbed a tree out of the ground, and used it to deflect each of them, before throwing it into Besu. "AIIEE!" He yelled.

"That's it, Mad Maddie." Yunai said, cracking her knuckles, and mutating her right and left arms into FlyGuy's and HeatBlast's, respectively. "Get ready for a chemical combustion!"

Yunai shot out a large stream of stinking goo, covering Maddie, before shooting out a stream of fire, causing Maddie to become consumed in an explosion.

"Whoa!" OverClone said, walking over to the scene. "Think you went a little overboard, sis?"

Madeline jumped through the explosion, holding a jagged metal pipe, yelling incessantly.

"No, not really!" Yunai shouted, mutating both her arms into HeatBlast's, and shooting a large explosion at Madeline.

Madeline dived through the explosion, and shouted, throwing the pipe directly into FaceBall's head.

OverClone shouted out, as he multiplied himself into several forms, and each jumped at her, grabbing onto her, and holding her down.

"GET OFFA ME!" Madeline yelled, struggling, before Yunai created a large explosion in the air, as FaceBall shot 6, flaming balls through it, exploding into Madeline, knocking her out.

The OverClones dropped Madeline to the ground, and high-fived each other, before morphing back into one.

"That takes care of that." Hyu said, smiling, as he transformed back to a human.

"Yep." Yunai agreed. "And hopefully, nobody ever brings up the whole 'Hyu being a criminal' thing, ever again."

"Actually-" FaceBall began, before Hyu interrupted him.

"Yep." Hyu said, as the three of them walked into the sunset. "I sure am glad this is all over, chums."

()

Later that night, Todd and Kate were sitting on the living room couch, watching reruns of 'Friends,' when Matheo climbed down the attic ladder, and yelled at them.

"Hey guys!" He yelled. "I found something pretty interesting!"

Todd and Kate both looked at each other, and shrugged. They followed him into the attic, and saw his entire workbench covered with pictures of someone who seemed to resemble the Ben Tennyson they had met, but far more adolescent.

"Is this about… Ben?" Kate asked, pointing at a photo of him.

"Yes… The one from our dimension." Matheo confirmed. "He disappeared off the face of the Earth, about 5-7 years ago."

"What happened to him?" Todd asked, noting the similarities between their Omnitrixes.

"I was able to tap into several of his phone conversations, and apparently, his most recent one depicted a conversation between him and his friends, planning out some sort of 'intergalactic roadtrip.' "

"Ye… What?" Kate asked.

"Alien activity cover-up, Something called 'The Rooters,' and, speaking of things dropping off the face of the Earth, apparently the removal of all information pertaining to a place called 'BellWood.' " He turned to Kate and Todd. "I don't know about you, but I think we've got a mystery on our hands, gang."

"We're… not your gang, dude." Kate rolled her eyes.

"It felt right, okay?" Matheo shook his head. "I'll get on that."

"In the meantime, since we've stumbled upon a state-wide conspiracy, here, we need to train, a lot." Todd nodded "We've got no clue what we're in for."

"Well, then, let's get to it, bros." Kate said, grinning.


	15. R2: Dine-N-Dash!

**(Author's Note: Yes, this took a while, too. Once again, sorry, but I hit writer's block, AND had to go to driver's ed, which really burned me out. But, now, it's finally out. I hope you guys like it!)**

In the dead of night, a man in completely black clothing, and a black mask is running away from police cars, and dives into an alleyway, exhausted. The police exited the car, and chase him into the alley.

"You just don't give up!" The man shouts, firing the gun behind him.

The cops dodged the fire, and continued after him. The man threw down a trashcan, before grabbing the can's lid, and throwing it behind him, hitting two cops directly in their faces, causing them to scream.

The man jumped onto a fire escape's ladder, and scaled it quickly, with the cops hot on his trail. Once he reached the top of the building, he fired at the corners of the escape multiple times, causing it to crumble, and fall back into the ally with a loud 'CRASH!'

"... Except when the fire escape gives way." The man muttered, grinning at his joke.

He turned around smugly, before a long, goopy tentacle appeared out of nowhere, grabbing the man.

"What the?!" He yelled, before he was grabbed by another tentacle.

The tentacles lifted him into the air, before they slammed into the ground, knocking him unconscious. A girl made of purple goop, with two long antennae emerged from the shadows, and grabbed the money, before opening it, and grinning at it's contents, before swiftly slinking back into the shadows, laughing to herself all the while.

()

"Oh, no way." Kate said, sitting upside down in her recliner, looking at her phone. "Girl, how could you fall for him, again?"

"Jeremy again?" Todd sighed, sitting across from her, playing 'The Outer Worlds,' on his PS4.

"How many times is Debra gonna get her heart broken by that dude?" Matheo agreed, looking up from his Manga.

"Nope, Debra's moved schools." Kate groaned. "It's Margot. She's been trying to find love for so long, but I guess Dylan's got other plans."

"Dylan?" Todd asked, before instantly being mauled to death by a Marauder, and groaning in frustration.

"Isn't that kid, like, a Milk boy?" Matheo laughed. "Doesn't strike me as a lady's man."

"Well, profession isn't everything to a lady, Matheo." Kate rolled her eyes. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you know that? I thought you had a girlfriend?"

Matheo froze. He had told Todd and Kate that he was dating a girl named Danielle, though he hadn't told them that Danielle wasn't actually real. He laughed nervously.

"Oh her?" Matheo waved his hand dismissively. "Aw, we broke up. No big deal… And just so you know, I broke up with HER, so don't go giving me any pity points."

"Yeah, right." Todd said. "Well, there's plenty of other fish in the sea."

Matheo grinned. It was time to really ham this whole performance up. He sighed, overdramatically.

"Yeah." He sniffled. "But none of them are my Danielle."

" 'YOUR' Danielle?" Kate said, cocking an eyebrow. "What, did you buy her, or something?"

"She's not the slave, Kate, I was!" Matheo shouted, defensively.

"I think we've opened a sensitive, melodramatic wound here, sis." Todd said.

"Agreed." Kate nodded. "Though, I must admit, I don't think I've seen him get torn up like this over a human before. Usually, he gets like this when one of his inventions runs away."

"Could you guys find it in your hearts to help me recover?" Matheo asked. "I… I think I might like to have a real- Er, a real chance at getting a girlfriend."

"Oh, my gosh." Todd said, almost dropping his controller, before being shot to death, anyways.

"You're not very good at that game, are you?" Kate asked, before going back to scrolling through her phone.

"Matheo, do you want me to be your wingman?!" Todd asked, excitedly.

"What?!" Matheo practically recoiled in disgust. "Not even a snowball's chance in hell! I'd take KATE before you!"

"Women can't be wingmen, dude." Kate rolled her eyes. "She'd think I'm your date… Ew."

Matheo put his face in his hands. This wasn't going as he planned. "What I meant was, maybe you guys could set me up with somebody, preferably tall, blonde, blue eyes, smart, and very much into revealing clothing."

"You forgot to mention incredibly low standards, and taken." Kate said. "Any girl like that already has a boyfriend."

"I don't recall saying I cared if they were already in a relationship." Matheo said, simply.

"Oh, yeah, that's much better." Kate folded her arms.

"I'm a simple guy, Kate." Matheo said, confidently. "I know what I want. Gimme some credit."

"You know, I think our brother has unrealistic expectations of the opposite sex." Todd whispered to Kate.

"What gave it away?" Kate responded.

"Well?" Matheo asked, tapping his foot. "You guys gonna help me or not?"

"Okay, fine." Kate said. "I think I can find someone who'd be willing to date you, Matheo. School starts in 23 minutes, so I'll make sure to talk to her."

"And I'll set you two soon-to-be lovebirds up on the PERFECT date!" Todd exclaimed, before adding: "How partial would you be to dining-and-dashing?"

()

As promised, during lunch, Kate found a girl, who had curly, blond hair, and large, thick glasses, and wore a very large, dark green sweatshirt, sitting alone at the back of the cafeteria. As soon as she saw Kate, the girl immediately jumped up, and ran over to her, shaking Kate's hand excitedly.

"Kate Harrison?!" She yelled in disbelief. "It's really you! Are you gonna adopt me into your posse?!"

"No, I-?" Kate realized what she'd just heard. "Did you say 'Posse?' "Well, yeah!" The girl replied breathlessly. "My name's Cristi, by the way! Or Cris, if you've already got a Cristi in your gang!"

"I-I know your name." Kate said, confused. "I just... Do you really think I have a posse?"

"Well, it's a group of 4 girls, that's a posse, right? You wouldn't mind if I joined, right?"

"Well, no, I guess not... But that's not why I'm here."

"It's not?" Cristi's eyes became as wide as saucers. "Then, what is it?!"

"Uh, this is gonna sound weird, but... One of my friends tipped me off to the fact that you don't currently... Have a boyfriend...?"

Kate winced. She could immediately tell that Cristi would flip out, since she didn't seem to have many friends, so coming off as if she was being mocked for not being in a relationship probably wouldn't do much to help Kate's already shaky first impression. But much to Kate's surprise, Cristi's face remained free from any anger or jealousy. She just laughed.

"Oh, naw. Not me." Cristi drew invisible circles on the table with her index finger. "No boy would ever like me."

()

"This is beyond stupid." Matheo muttered in math class, scribbling a picture of himself wearing a king's garb, and sentencing every single popular kid in school to incarceration. "I don't need a girlfriend, especially when I'm gonna be king of the world."

Matheo glanced up, and almost jumped out of his skin to see Todd and his two friends sitting around him.

"What the-?!" Matheo shouted, before the teacher shushed him. "What are you idiots doing here?!"

"Wow, rude." Casey said, crossing his arms. "Is he always like this?"

"You get used to it." Todd said dismissively.

"Well, it's not gonna fly on any date longer than 5 seconds." Brendon smirked.

"Date?" Matheo said, before he narrowed his eyes at Todd. "I didn't know you dolts knew about that."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Brendon said. "He can't just have an outburst in the middle of the date."

"There's no date!" Matheo whined, and put his head on the desk. "Can you go away now? I liked being alone."

"No, you didn't." Todd sighed.

"Whatever."

"So." Casey said, examining his fingernails. "Where do we come in with this whole 'dating' thing?"

"Well, you guys are going steady with your own relationships." Todd said, hopefully. "Maybe you could help him out?"

Casey looked at Matheo, and groaned. "Well, he's definitely a fixer-upper."

"I heard that!" Matheo said through gritted teeth.

()

Kate twiddled her thumbs. "Bad experience with dating, huh?"

"No, nothing like that." Cristi rolled her eyes. "I'm not one to get hung up on the past. I can just tell. I'm always... Just a face in the crowd with boys. A 4/10, if you know what I mean... Maybe a 5."

"Oh, well, you know that stuff's just arbitrary. I'll bet with some better make-up, and a more can-do attitude, you could easily become a 10!" Kate said, trying to be as positive as possible.

"Eh." Cristi smiled at her.

Kate felt odd when she did. She knew that Kristi was smiling at her joke, but knowing that kind of hurt a little. She shook it off.

" 'Eh?!' " Kate asked, surprised. "Every girl has to date a boy in middle school! It's practically a rite of passage!"

"Well I guess I'm in the wrong." Cristi shot back.

"Okay, you may have given up on the dating scene, but what if I said I found the right guy for you?"

"Does he know it's actually me and not... I dunno, Heather Jones?" Cristi said, unimpressed.

"Yes!" Kate said, not technically lying, since Matheo probably didn't know who Heather was."

"Really?" Cristi asked, cocking an eyebrow. "This isn't a prank?"

"Cristi!" Kate said, offended. "Would I lie to you? I'm your friend, aren't I?"

"... Okay, I'll go through with this." Cristi sighed, smiling. "But I swear to god, if this is a prank, Kate, I'll-"

"I know, I know." Kate said, chuckling. "Trust me, this ain't no fluke."

"Er... Did you just say 'Fluke?' " Cristi said, concerned.

"Shut up." Kate replied.

()

Later, Todd, Matheo, Casey and Brendon were at the Harrison's house, while Matheo walked out of the bathroom, wearing a slick, black tuxedo. The three friends all simultaneously 'oooh'd' at him as soon as he entered.

"Oh, shut up." Matheo said. "... Do you really think she'll like it?"

"Yeah... Except for that bracelet." Casey said, pointing at Matheo's Optitrix. "Might wanna ditch that. Red-and-Grey doesn't mix with Black-and-White, bro."

"Dude!" Matheo said, pretending to be offended.

"It's a keepsake from his late Great-Grandma." Todd whispered to Casey. "She passed away 2 months ago."

"Oh." Casey said, feeling stupid.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't make a bad ice-breaker." Brendon said, nodding. "You could make it work."

"Okay, guys, I'm dressed." Matheo said, straightening his black bow-tie. "I guess I'll get going, then."

"Well, not yet!" Todd protested. "What are you gonna do on the date, genius?!"

"Well, Kate probably set me up with somebody who's also a genius, so I think we could talk about our favorite types of neutron deviations?"

"Beyond lame!" Casey shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.

"Maybe your hobbies?" Todd asked, optimistically before Casey put his hand on Todd's shoulder.

"Dude, I think he's beyond saving." Casey said, shaking his head. "I have baseball practice in 25 minutes, so I should probably get going. Later."

"DUDE!" Todd shouted, as Casey left the house.

"Same, man." Brendon agreed. "Some dudes just stay single."

"Guys, come on!" Todd called after them as they left.

The three of them left the attic, leaving Matheo alone. Matheo walked over to his workbench, and pulled out a picture of 2 twenty-year-olds, holding three children, looking happily at the camera. He picked it up, and looked at it wistfully.

"I'll bet Dad would know how to help me out." Matheo embraced the picture in a hug, and felt a tear roll down his cheek.

Suddenly, the sound of Todd re-entering the attic invaded the room, and Matheo hurriedly shoved the picture-frame back into the drawer, and closed it. He'd found the frame in the basement while he was replacing the lightbulbs for the first time in ages, and hadn't told anybody about it for the last 6-and-a-half months. He didn't know why, but he hoped that his siblings never found the picture... Even if it did show their parents.

"Okay, Well, some friends, right?" Todd said, trying to sound cheery. "But we don't- Hey, what's wrong?"

Matheo realized tears were running down his face, and he wiped his eyes. "Nothing. Allergies."

"Oh, I get it." Todd crossed his arms. "Don't worry, man. You'll meet someone. I mean, there's plenty of other fish in the sea, right? Who cares if one date doesn't go smoothly."

Matheo smiled, and hugged Todd. As he let go, Todd was left speechless.

"Uh... You're welcome?" Todd asked, bewildered.

"Thanks, dude." Matheo said. "And you're right. I... Shouldn't let it get to me."

"That's the spirit!" Todd said patting Matheo on his shoulder.

"So... Any tips on this date?"

"Well, I guess just try to get to know her. And don't put her on a pedestal. Whoever this girl is, she's probably human too, so just talk. Try not to get so scared of making a fool of yourself that you... Y'know, make a fool of yourself."

"Heh." Matheo sighed. "Yeah. I'll try not to do that... Thanks, again."

()

Kate and Cristi approached the Harrison's house. Cristi had changed into a long, bright green, slightly revealing dress, with her hair fashioned into a bun. She turned to Kate, and tried to appear confident.

"How do I look?" Cristi asked.

"Like an angel. I'm really glad that eyeliner worked so well, it was my first time trying something so complicated."

"Yeah." Cristi frowned. "Hey, after this, do you think maybe I could go out with you and your friends? I was kind of looking forwards to that."

"Uh... Sure." Kate said, hesitating, before she realized how she was coming off. "I mean, not to be rude or anything, it's just that... You know... We just met, and all."

"Oh. Yeah." Cristi said, blankly.

"But, we could fix that, so-"

"I get it." Cristi said, putting her hand up. "I hope this guy is at least nicer than you are."

Kate was stunned. She didn't say anything, and turned back to the door. Matheo opened the door, and was holding a bouquet of flowers, and looked at Cristi. Matheo froze.

"Uh... H-hi." Matheo stuttered, before coughing. "Hi. Matheo... Nice to... Nice to meet you." He stuck his hand out to Cristi, who politely returned the favor.

"Cristi." She replied.

"What a name." Matheo said, under his breath.

"Uh, so where are we going?" Cristi asked, as Hyu walked out of the house from behind them, and triumphantly posed in front of them.

"Hello, lovebirds." Hyu said, flexing. "And Matheo! My good friend! Oh, man, Cristi. The stories the two of us can tell!"

"Can this get any cheesier?" Kate asked, rolling her eyes, as Cristi punched her in the shoulder.

"You're... Hyu..." Cristi said, amazed. "Holy crap."

"Correction." Hyu said, before activating his Splicatrix, and transforming into Upgrade. "I'm your ride."

Upgrade morphed himself around the broken lawnmower in the yard, and transformed it into a limousine, opening the back-seat door for the kids. Kate, Matheo, and Cristi all entered the car, and Upgrade took off down the road.

Inside the sofa, were three black-and-blue sofas, a trashcan (Which he had for some reason.), and a cabinet, filled with empty cans.

"This is the best day, ever." Cristi said, looking out the window.

"Yeah." Matheo said, throwing the bouquet into the trashcan, before it was immediately spat back up into his lap.

"Hey." Cristi said, looking back to Matheo. "Did you really get ahold of Hyu, just for our date?"

"Yeah." Matheo sighed.

"Thanks." Cristi said, smiling at him.

Matheo looked at her in confusion. "You mean it?"

"Absolutely. He seems like he'd be pretty busy, and you really know how to make a first impression..." Cristi stopped herself, and took note of Matheo's Optitrix. "Huh... You're a Besu guy, huh?"

"... Yeah." Matheo nodded. "Who's your favorite? Probably Yunai, right?"

"No, Besu's my favorite too. Red's my favorite color."

Matheo smirked. "I guess that's something we have in common... That's how dates work right?"

"I dunno." Cristi laughed. "I wish someone gave me a manual for this whole dating thing."

"Right?!" Matheo nodded. "People make it sound so complicated!"

"See?" Kate laughed, nervously. "This is going great!"

Cristi gave her a dirty look. "Why are you here, again?" Was all she said, before she turned back to Matheo.

"Hey!" Matheo said, stunned. "That's my sister you're dissing!"

"I know." Cristi said, crossing her arms. "But she's the one who didn't want to be friends with me."

"Is that true?" Matheo asked, looking at Kate, confused. "Why?"

"It's not like that!" Kate shouted, shaking her head.

"Well, still." Matheo sighed, turning back to Cristi. "Kate may have said something mean in the past, but you need to rise above, it and be the bigger person in all this."

"Maybe." Cristi admitted.

"Cristi, I am sorry." Kate said, sincerely.

"Okay, Kate." Cristi said, and smiled at her.

Kate smiled back at her, and began to feel those strange feelings again. She couldn't explain it. For some reason, every time Cristi was even the slightest bit nice to Kate, Kate became more and more scared of her.

"Agh!" Upgrade shouted out in pain, as there was large 'thunk' on top of the car.

A human teenage girl wearing armored pads on her upper and lower chest, arms, legs and face had landed on top of Upgrade, and she was wielding a large, blue, electric axe. Upgrade's head appeared from the top of the car, before the girl swung at him, nearly taking his head off as he ducked back down.

"Who are you, lady?!" Upgrade shouted, trying not to cause a wreck.

"Name's not important." She said, and slammed the axe directly into the roof of the car, causing everyone inside to yelp in surprise.

"Who-?!" Cristi asked, confused, before Kate jumped in front of her and Matheo, protecting them.

"You've got the wrong car, lady!" Kate yelled, glaring at her.

"On the contrary." The lady said, transforming her arm into a long purple tentacle, and throwing Kate into the side of a nearby building. "I have the exact car I was looking for!"

"Kate!" Matheo yelled, jumping up, and yelling at Upgrade: "Stop the car!"

"If you say so. Brace yourself!" Upgrade replied.

Matheo grabbed Cristi, as Upgrade de-morphed, transforming the lawnmower back to normal. The two kids were sent barreling onto the sidewalk, scraped and bruised.

"Matheo?" Cristi asked, worried. "Now would be a real good time to call in the other Katachi Members."

Matheo glanced momentarily at his Optitrix, the back to Cristi, before he ran over to her, and helped her up. "Uh... Yeah. It would, if I could. Come on, let's go!"

As the two ran down the alleyway next to them, Upgrade fired a laser at the armored girl, missing her by a few inches. Kate fell to the ground, before picking herself up, only to be kicked in the head by the armored girl falling from the sky, sending her flying back several feet.

"You don't need to keep this act up, Yunai." The armored girl said, walking towards her.

"Okay, cool." Kate said, mutating her hand into that of HandyMan's. "No need to let you keep kicking me around, then."

She charged at the Armored Girl, who grabbed Kate with her slime tentacles, and smacked her into a nearby oak tree, causing her to scream in pain.

"Ouch..." Kate groaned. "Who are you?"

"Nobody you know closely." The Armored Girl said, cracking her knuckles, and taking out her axe. "Just somebody who really has a bone to pick with you, Yunai."

()

Matheo and Cristi both ran away for a while, and panted, out of breath.

"Man... The Katachi League... Sure gets attacked a lot... Huh?" Cristi said, gasping for air.

"Yeah." Matheo nodded. "Sorry about that."

Cristi scratched her head. "So... Now what?"

"On our date?" Matheo shifted uncomfortably. "Hopefully there's a fancy restaurant around here?"

"I mean, about your sister!"

"Kate?! She's fine, no need to worry."

Cristi crossed her arms. "How do you know?"

"Hyu's there! Isn't that enough?" Matheo protested.

"I don't know. We should at least go back to if she's alright. I mean, aren't you even the slightest bit curious as to why she's being targeted when she's apparently just a... Normal... Kid."

Cristi looked at Matheo with sudden suspicion.

"Matheo." She asked. "Where did you _actually_ get that bracelet?"

"A gift shop!" Matheo replied, quickly. "Where else?"

"And why couldn't you get ahold of the other 2 members of the Katachi-League, again?"

"... They're... Very busy at this time of night?"

"Matheo, come on. Don't lie to me." Cristi glared at him. "Kate's my friend. She could be in trouble, and you're just lying to me, for no reason!"

"Okay, fine!" Matheo said, annoyed. "Yeah, I'm Besu, Todd's Hyu, and Kate's Yunai! There!"

"Thank you." Cristi smiled.

"Yeah, whatever. Look, you'd better not tell any of this to your gal pals, alright?"

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I don't really have friends. At least not until Kate came along."

"Wait, what?" Matheo sounded confused. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Nobody ever really wanted to hang out with me... And deep down, I'm worried Kate'll forget about me after this date. She just seems to give off weird vibes every time I try to be her friend, like she doesn't mean it, or feels guilty, or something."

"Cristi, listen to me." Matheo reassured her. "Kate won't forget about you, okay? I promise."

"Yeah, I know. Just hard to shake a feeling sometimes."

They smiled at each other, before Cristi pointed at Matheo's Optitrix.

"So, it's time you put that thing to use, huh?"

"You bet." Matheo smiled, and activated the Optitrix, and slamming down the core, soon becoming engulfed in a red flash.

()

Matheo's left arm began covered in hard, green diamond chunks, as well as the rest of his body. As it covered his face, the diamonds surrounded his eyes, which flipped over 180 degrees, to reveal yellow crystals. Two large, diamond spikes grew out of his backs. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his left shoulder, and he flexed.

()

"DIAMONDGUY!" He shouted, as Cristi climbed onto his back, before he ran out of the alleyway.

()

The Armored Girl stood above Yunai, and raised the electronic axe in the air, before a large explosion of blue light blinded her momentarily. Yunai took the opportunity, and kicked the Girl's ankles, and jumped back to her feet. Hyu, now HeatBlast stood next to her, and cracked his fiery knuckles.

"Took you long enough." Yunai said under her breath, transforming her arms into Refractor's.

"Upgrade really sucks for long distance running in forests, apparently." HeatBlast said back. "Who knew?"

"What's your endgame here, mystery meat?!" Yunai yelled at the armored girl.

"Not much, just taking you guys out for good!"

"Sometimes it's just that simple." Heatblast shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I don't buy it." Yunai replied. "Call it a hunch."

"Oh, don't worry." The Armored Girl yelled at her. "You won't live long enough to find out!"

HeatBlast tore out a section of the concrete, terraforming it into a meteor, and riding it into the air as a surfboard, before he backflipped off of it, sending it crashing into the girl, causing a large explosion. Kate covered her face, so that the sparks and dirt didn't get in her face. As the Armored Girl tried to get up, Diamonds appeared from the smoke, and pinned her to the ground, as DiamondGuy and Cristi walked over into the scene.

"Ah, Hyu!" Yunai said, coughing. "These must be those lovebirds you were chauffering. Very odd party, I must say."

"Save it, guys." Cristi said, waving her hands. "Besu... Er, Matheo, over here, told me everything."

"Oh, did he?" HeatBlast asked, through gritted teeth. "Good to know."

"Don't blow a gasket." DiamondGuy replied dismissively. "She's trustworthy."

"You're only saying that 'cause you've got a crush on her!" Yunai yelled.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt." Cristi asked, pointing to The Armored Girl, who's mask had fallen off. "But who is SHE?"

Yunai walked over to the girl, and lifted her head up, only to almost recoil in shock. "Lebana" Yuai asked. "Is that you?"

"Who's Lebana?" DiamondGuy asked, as HeatBlast elbowed him in the shoulder.

"But why?" Yunai prodded. "Why do any of this crap?"

"Why do you think, you idiot?" Lebana yelled in anger. "It's about the Unitrix!"

"How do you know what the Unitrix is?" HeatBlast asked, concerned.

"None of your business!" Lebana spat.

"I don't think so." DiamondGuy said, walking towards her. "You'll tell us what you know, or else!"

Yunai stopped him, and turned back to Lebana. "Who told you?" She asked.

"Some guy saying he was working for a group called... Infinite knights, or something."

"Look who's talkative all of a sudden." Yunai said, sassily. "Why do you care about the Unitrix so much?"

"Because I WANT it!" Lebana whined. "Yunai's an inspiration to little girls everywhere! That should have been me, not my undeserving friend!"

"Well... I understand if you're jealous, but trying to-"

"JEALOUS?!" Lebana erupted. "You don't deserve powers, I do! You've got it all Kate, friends, good grades, an inventor little brother, A cool house, a lovable personality! What do I have?! Nothing! Nothing at all! My life's the most boring thing EVER!"

"We can compare 2 different lives all day, Lebana." Yunai sighed.

"You don't get it, Kate! You could have any guy in the school at your feet if you wanted! Not me! Never me! I could never even dream of having a boyfriend! But if I had the Unitrix, nobody would EVER say no to me again! Nobody would EVER call me ugly again!"

"Because they'd be afraid of you!" HeatBlast said, sternly. "Listen to yourself!"

"Stay out of this!" Lebana yelled. "Kate, please. We're friends, right? Do me a favor, PLEASE."

"Not happening Lebana." Yunai sighed. "Sorry."

The triplets and Cristi turned around, and left Lebana, as she began screaming nonsense.

()

The triplets had changed back into their civilian gear, and were standing outside an extremely fancy restaurant, 'Rose's Vineyard."

"Hope you guys enjoy it." Todd said, bashfully. "Even with what just happened."

"Our utmost apologies." Kate agreed.

"Guys, you're embarrassing me..." Matheo groaned.

"No, they're not." Cristi laughed. "Come on, we're gonna be let in next."

"Good luck!" Kate called after them, before turning to Todd. "You know, they seem happy together."

"Yeah. You really found a 1-in-a-million there. That being, a female who can actually tolerate Matheo." Todd laughed.

"Definitely a rare breed." Kate sighed.

"But you don't seem very happy." Todd noted. "Why is that?"

"Well, not only did one of my best friends turn out to be an evil psycho with a death wish against me, but I can't help but feel super weird around Cristi." Kate groaned. "Maybe she's not a good fit for Matheo? Is that it? Is it like, woman's intuition, or something?"

Todd put his hand on her shoulder, and smirked. "You did a good job, sis. Don't beat yourself up over a falling out that ain't even happened yet."

Kate nodded. "You're right. Thanks for that... Speech, I guess."

"Pretty short-ass speech." Todd said, shrugging.

()

Meanwhile, deep in space, an elongated black-and-orange spaceship was flying along the cosmos, searching for something. Eventually, it picked up a large, grey object, and extruded a long gray claw, and pulled it back into the craft. Inside the cargo bay, 3 alien cronies with orange-and-black gear surrounded the object, and pulled it into an organic recharge chamber.

"Finally, after all these years." A slim, snow-white alien in a black robe, and a black-and-white thorn on his head said, emerging from the shadows. "Vilgax, the conqueror of worlds, has been found. You, there, activate the juices!"

The crony nodded, and filled the tube with thick, orange, transparent liquid, with several black electric spheres inside it as well.

"He won't be able to exit for a while, but hopefully he'll be able to talk within... Let's say about a week?"

"Psyphon!" Vilgax suddenly yelled, angrily. "What is the meaning of this?! Where is Ben Tennyson?!"

"About that, your leige." Psyphon said, thoroughly startled. "He and his pitiful array of friends took off into the stars roughly... About... 6 years ago?"

"6... YEARS?!" Vilgax shouted. "Well, where is he now?!"

"Er... That was about it. He's disappeared, along with the entirety of BellWood. That's kind of a funny story, actually-"

"As usual, Psyphon, you have failed to divulge the correct information." Vilgax interrupted.

"I... I have?" Psyphon gulped.

"Yes. Because I sense multiple Omnitrix signals emanating from Earth. So, tell me, how is Tennyson lost to space, when he is CLEARLY still on Earth?!"

"Ah... Yes. Right, yes." Psyphon cleared his throat. "We seek out a proper target to send out to test Ben's new strength."

"That's a good plan." Vilgax agreed. "Send this target a transmission, now."

()

Lebana was still sitting within the diamond prison, sighing. She punched the side of the cage, before yelling in pain. Suddenly, a large, orange drone flew down from the sky, and stuck two long, thick chords into her forehead, before she could react. As it did, the ground below her began to disappear. She screamed out, before she found herself inside of a void.

"What the-?!" Lebana yelled in fear, before the image of Vilgax appeared before her. "Who in the-? Cthulhu's real?!"

"There is no time for your pitiful jokes, Earthling." Vilgax replied. "I need you to find Ben Tennyson, eliminate him, and bring me his Omnitrix."

"Ben Tennyson?" Lebana asked, confused. "Man, you really are out of the loop, aren't you?"

"Just what's that supposed to mean?" Vilgax asked, unamused.

"Ben and his friends left on an 'intergalactic road-trip' YEARS ago. There are others on this planet using Omnitrixes, though. If you'd like, I could kill them instead."

"Very well." Vilgax said. "You have 24 of your hours. Bring me AN Omnitrix by then."

"That's easier said than done." Lebana said, staring him down. "If you want this to be done correctly, you'll need to give me some tools."

"I'm aware. The drone that's allowing us to communicate is equipped with a body-armor function. I do hope it will be enough for your needs."

The vision ended, and Lebana completely found herself covered from head-to-toe in black-and-silver body-armor, complete with a metallic helmet, as well. She effortlessly tore a hole in the ceiling of the Diamond Cage, and leaped out of it, landing at the other end of the park.

"Super strength, nice." Lebana said, before looking at the corner of her vision, noting a small map, leading her towards the Triplets. "Even Nicer."

()

"So... I'm thinking maybe just a gourmet burger." Matheo nodded.

"Excuse me?" Cristi asked. "Are you tryna tell me you came out to this fancy-pants place, all to order a burger?"

"A _gourmet_ burger." Matheo corrected her. "Totally different."

Cristi rolled her eyes, before leaning in close to Matheo. "So, tell me, what's being a world-famous superhero like, exactly?"

"Oh, it's the WORST." Matheo groaned. "My siblings think they know everything, but they're obviously just the cannon-fodder. I'm so obviously the leader, it's not even funny. But who ALWAYS gets called the leader? Todd! It's unbelievable!"

Cristi nodded, before suddenly thinking of something. "Oh, and what's up with your names, anyway? Like, they're all just 'blank'-guy."

"Well, that just makes 'em easy to remember." Matheo said, turning the page of his menu.

Cristi suddenly noticed a reflection of someone soaring through the air from her cup. She looked out the window to see Mecha-Lebana falling from the sky, and landing just outside the restaurant. She quickly turned back to Matheo, visibly worried.

"Hate to interrupt." She said, pointing out the window. "But we've got a code Lebana."

()

Meanwhile, Todd and Kate were sitting just outside the restaurant, texting on their phones, when suddenly, they heard someone shouting above them, and looked up, to see Mecha-Lebana, barreling down towards them at full speed.

"OH, KA-A-ATIE!" Mecha-Lebana yelled, and landed in a large crater, causing the twins to fly far into the air.

"Holy crap!" Todd yelled, quckly activating his Splicatrix, and exploding into a blue light.

()

The Splicatrix transformed itself into a black-and-white drawing on Todd's arm, which consumed the rest of his body with paper. Once he was fully consumed, his body became flattened, and his head became rectangular. A mouth, and scribbly eyes were drawn on his face, as well as a semblance of an outfit on his body, and finally, an Omnitrix symbol on his chest. Todd transformed his hands into hammers, and grinned.

()

"PAPERCUT!" He yelled, before extending his arms out, grabbing onto a loose pipe on the roof of the restaurant, and pulling himself instantly to it, noiselessly landing.

Before Kate could land, Mecha-Lebana grabbed her out of the air, and threw her directly into the diner, causing her to land in the middle of the establishment. The patrons began yelling, and running all around the place.

"Holy mother of god!" Matheo yelled, standing up.

Mecha-Lebana was about to jump in after Kate, but PaperCut grabbed onto her, reinforcing his arms, and threw her into a wall next to the restaurant. Mecha-Lebana was sent flying through the window, as PaperCut jumped into the diner, and grabbed Kate's body, slapping her face, before she woke up.

"Get off me!" Kate said, as loudly as she could, barely managing to stand up. "... Ouch. That roof is a lot denser than it looks."

"Yeah, well, you may want to go Yunai before the smoke settles." PaperCut suggested.

"Good idea." Kate nodded, transforming into Yunai.

"What's going on guys?!" Matheo asked, running over with Cristi.

"I'm going on!" Leban screamed, punching a large hole in the wall, and lumbering through it.

"That sucked." Cristi muttered under her breath.

"Ah, Cristi!" Lebana shouted. "Quick, use your SludgePuppy powers! Now's your chance to destroy Kate, once and for all! Now!"

"Wait, what?!" Matheo asked, confused. "What's a 'SludgePuppy?' "

"Cristi?" Kate asked, her eyes widening. "What's she talking about?"

"Well if she's gonna spoil the surprise..." Cristi said, nonchalantly transforming her hand into a long, purple tentacle, grabbing Yunai's neck, and slamming her into the wall of the diner.

"That's not a good idea..." Yunai mumbled, and mutated her arms into Amphibian's, and electrocuting the tentacle, causing Cristi to drop her.

PaperCut lunged at Cristi, before he was stopped by Lebana, who back-handed slapped him into a booth, which collapsed around him.

"We're here for Kate." Leban growled.

"Sorry, Matheo. We're just gonna remove the one thing that's keeping your sister alive. I hope we can keep seeing each other after this."

"Wait... Taking the Unitrix out is gonna kill Kate?" Lebana asked, suddenly worried.

"Well, yeah, obviously. Kate IS the Unitrix, dummy." Cristi laughed. "Of course, if you want to back out now..."

"I... I didn't-" Lebana started, before she was electrocuted.

"Don't forget our deal." She heard Vilgax saying.

As Lebana was trying to shake it off, PaperCut managed to pull himself out of the demolished table, and coughed.

"Matheo..." PaperCut said, weakly. "Matheo, do something!"

"I can't!" Matheo whispered back. "That's my girlfriend over there!"

"Well, that's also your SISTER over there, dude!" PaperCut brushed himself off, sighing.

"... I know." Matheo admitted, activating his Optitrix, and transforming into:

"SNAILGUY!"

"What the-?" Lebana asked, turning around, to see SnailGuy whip her to the ground with his tail, before she punched him into the air, and roundhouse kicked him into the cash register, causing it to explode.

Kate's armor had disappeared, but she had managed to pick herself up, only to see Cristi standing over her, arms crossed.

"So, it was you the whole time, huh?" Kate said, coughing. "Pretending like it was Lebana this whole time... Why?"

"It was a lot more convenient for you to assume there were 2 enemies when there was only 1." Cristi said. "But... It's getting harder to go along with it, now... Because I think that you really ARE my friend."

"Yes!" Kate said, exasperated. "What, you didn't believe me, or something?!"

"I don't much know."Cristi admitted. "But I can't just sit here, and watch the one thing that keeps you going get removed, and have you disappear forever. And Lebana didn't know that would happen."

"Classic Lebana." Kate said. "Speaking of which..."

Kate mutated her arms into those of HandyMan's, and grabbed Lebana, before throwing her at SnailGuy, who grabbed her, and covered her in corrosive acid, causing her armor to rust off, and break. Lebana fell to the ground, unconscious.

Todd and Matheo both returned to normal, and walked over to the girls.

"Great job, team." Todd said, giving a thumbs-up.

Matheo looked at Cristi, and crossed his arms. "We could have used your help, you know."

"Me?" Cristi laughed. "Please. I'm no hero. Heck, you probably never wanna see me again."

"That's not true!" Matheo insisted. "Look, I know you were trying to kill us, but I think we could honestly get along pretty well together, on a real date, you know?"

"Thanks, but no thanks." Cristi said. "Looks like the date's over, here. But for what it's worth, I had fun."

Matheo was stunned, as Cristi turned to Kate.

"Okay, Kate. A promise is a promise."

"Pretty much." Kate agreed.

()

Kate, Cristi, and Margot all sat together on a couch at Margot's house, in their pajamas, and reading magazines.

"This is always what I hoped a sleepover would feel like." Cristi said, happily, and eating a bowl of cereal. "It's so cozy."

"You can say that again, girlfriend." Margot nodded. "You know, Kate, for the quiet girl, she's pretty talkative."

"See, Cristi? It's not a posse. Having friends is just supposed to be comforting, not intimidating."

"I wish I'd known that earlier." Cristi admitted.

"Well, you do now." Kate smiled. "Now, who's up for a pillow fight?"


	16. R3: Crowd Control!

"Alright." Matheo said, sauntering into the living room, holding a large folder full of yellow, laminated papers, and a smug grin plastered on his face. "I've been thinking a while, and-"

"Cool." Todd sighed. "Don't care.'

Todd was sitting upside down on a bean-bag, reading a comic book, and eating a bag of barbecue potato chips. He paid no mind to Matheo's work. Obviously this angered Matheo, but he said nothing. You see, Matheo had been taking rage-controlling classes, and so lately had been attempting to keep himself from blowing up at Todd so often.

"Well, you should." Matheo said. "I've found evidence to suggest the existence of an underground community, which supposedly existed UNDER BellWood in it's prime, so-"

"BellWood, SchmellWood." Todd yawned, before sitting upright, and looking at Matheo. "How, exactly, does this affect the team?"

"Er-" Matheo started, before looking down. "... I dunno, I was hoping we could go there, and-"

"GO there?" Todd asked, dumbfounded. "How?! Take the bus over to the next country?!"

"It's actually in the US, remember?"

"Right, that helps. We'll just take the bus to wherever in some other state." Todd sighed. "Mo, I know that you're trying to keep spirits up, but we're just a few kids, you, Kate, and I."

"I know." Matheo grumbled.

"Heck, just being able to pay the bills around here is a total nightmare." Todd said, standing up and stretching. "We can't just go on some roadtrip, just to make sure that some ghost town is ACTUALLY a ghost town."

"Yeah, yeah, okay." Matheo put his hands up. "I get the point, leader."

Todd looked at him. "... What's that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"Exactly what you think it means." Matheo mumbled under his breath, walking out of the room.

He slammed the door behind him, walking into the house's attic, before he kicked the dust on the floor. "Stupid Todd." He muttered to himself. "He thinks he knows everything... Doesn't he know that's MY job?!"

Matheo walked around in a circle, before he snapped his fingers.

"I've got it!" He shouted, triumphantly. "I'll show those two. I'll take the sewers, and find that underground community, myself!"

Matheo looked over to his workbench, and grinned. "And what better way to prove those idiots wrong, then by doing the one thing they said I couldn't?"

Matheo examined his smoking Optitrix-hacking machine, and smirked, before he picked up a socket wrench, and used it to pry open a large metal sheet, causing every single burnt, torn wire to come tumbling out of the machine, and onto the ground in front of him. He sighed, and grabbed the pile of wires, before throwing them in the recycling bin.

"Or not." He said, rubbing his forehead with his greasy hands. "Those were pretty much all my wires. I'm gonna need more."

"Hey, dude." Kate said, interrupting him, climbing through the trapdoor before she plopped down on the beanbag in the corner, with a detective novel. "Sounded like you were partying up here."

"I'm not partying, nitwit!" Matheo groaned. "I'm trying to figure out how to improve my Optitrix! I don't have time for this nonsense!"

"You mean, 'upgrade' the Optitrix? Like regular people say?" Kate said, dismissively. "Good luck. I look forward to seeing how you muck this one up."

"Wait a sec." Matheo said, turning to Kate, his brain having just hatched an idea. " 'Upgrade' theOptitrix! That's it!"

"What now?" Kate asked, lowering her book, and raising an eyebrow.

"Stand back, Kate!" Matheo popped up his Optitrix gleefully, and turned to TechGuy. "I'm gonna do something crazy!"

"What else is new...?"

Matheo slammed the Optitrix core down, and deformed into a red glow.

()

Matheo's arm was covered in black goo, as was the rest of his body, giving it a blobby appearance. Then, red circuitry filled most of his body, with the rest of it becoming a solid red, between his legs, and the lower part of his chest. An Omnitrix appeared on his chest, and he puffed his chest out.

()

"TECHGUY!" He yelled, before turning to Kate. "Okay, Kate, It's time for me to do the previously assumed impossible!"

"You're really hyping... Whatever you're doing, up, you know that?"

"Let's see you still sass me, after I unlock the Optitrix's true form!"

TechGuy deformed his neck, and shot it directly into the Omnitrix symbol, until it was all that was left ofMatheo, it fell to the ground, covered in steam.

"Matheo...?" Kate asked, standing up. "Oh boy, Todd's really gonna let me have it this time..."

Suddenly, the Omnitrix symbol rose into the air, and became consumed in red light, as well as beginning to superheat. The humidity it was giving off was causing the walls to melt around the basement.

"Oh no." Kate said, before mutating her entire body into a female version of HeatBlast, before grabbing the core, and sprinting out of the house.

She ran through the kitchen, and out the back door, before she mutated DragonFly's wings out of her back, and flying high into the air. As soon as she began to take flight, the Omnitrix symbol fluctuated, flying out of her hands, before transforming into GoldenGuy.

"Oh, Matheo." Kate said, relieved. "You're not dead. That's great."

GoldenGuy didn't respond, instead activating his hoverboard, and flying off. Kate sputtered in confusion, before flying after him.

"Hey, spacey!" Kate yelled when she caught up with him. "Get a grip! Where are you even going?!"

GoldenGuy blankly continued flying, until he began to groan, and was suddenly split into two halves, one half staying as GoldenGuy, but the other becoming DiamondGuy, who quickly began falling, and picking up speed.

"What the-?!" Kate asked, before realizing DiamondGuy was falling. "Wait, OH NO!"

She flew down after him, but DiamondGuy hit the middle of a large, grassy field, leaving a gigantic crater.

"Matheo!" Kate yelled, coughing, and waving the smoke away. "Are you alright?! Say something!"

Next, both SnailGuy, and FaceBall walked out of the smoking crater, past Kate, who was utterly bewildered at this point. She also saw DiamondGuy leaving the crater as well, and, directly after that, something quickly sprinted past her. She shrugged it off, and, with her HeatBlast hands, absorbed the smoke from the crater, before demutating her body, and sliding into the crater.

"Matheo!" She called, jumping over a large rock, and looking around. "Please tell me there's a good explanation for this!"

"Kate?" She heard him calling from the pit.

Kate ran over to Matheo, who was climbing out of the middle of the pit, and helped him out.

"You want to explain what's going on here?" Kate asked, crossing her arms.

"Nope." Matheo shook his head. "Can we go now? I think those aliens are getting away."

"Oh, geez, I knew it." Kate said, facepalming. "You going Upgrade-"

"TECHGUY." Matheo corrected her.

"Whoever! You going TechGuy, and upgrading the Optitrix, I KNEW it was bad mojo!""

"No, you didn't! If you did, you would have said something! That's what makes you useless, and stupid!"

"Wow, okay, rude." Kate rolled her eyes. "Do you have even a semblance of a plan?"

"Well, not yet. Don't worry, they're just DNA samples. They can't kill anybody... At least, not on purpose... At least, I don't THINK they can... They don't come with brains, right?"

"I don't know."

"Okay, well, we'll say maybe, for now." Matheo concluded. "In the meantime, check THIS out!"

He held up the Optitrix, which looked extremely different. Now, the red, glowing tubes were nonexistent, and was primarily grey, with what looked like an enlarged, red hourglass symbol at its top, underneath the dial. The normally round buttons had also been converted to triangles, and the top of the rim was completely black, save 4 red triangles.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Matheo said, nodding. "I know that Upgrading may have unleashed all of the aliens, but maybe there's some kind of POSITIVE side effect?"

"Only time will tell?" Kate asked, shrugging her shoulders.

"SCREW THAT!" Matheo said, activating the Splicatrix, and turning through it. "If we're gonna get those aliens back, we're gonna need fire power, and LOTS of it!"

Matheo scrolled through his Alien roster, and fist-pumped. There were three new aliens in his roster, on resembling a large creature, with several spikes placed around the top of his body. There was also a smaller, muscular alien, with 3 protrusions on his head. And finally, there was a large, humanoid dinosaur, with a spiked tail, and spikes all along his back.

"Todd's gonna be totally jealous!" Matheo said, happily. "Even though I think I lost TechGuy... I can't find him ANYWHERE in here... Oh, well. I don't need him. I can build things good enough on my own."

"That's the spirit!" Kate said. "And you know the old saying, 'You're aliens are my aliens!' "

"Oh, yeah. I forgot. You mooch off my genius."

"And how do you suggest I unlock aliens myself?" Kate asked, tapping her foot.

"The same way you sneeze on it." Matheo replied, before turning back to his Optitrix. "This is AWESOME! Now I know how Todd feels!"

"Okay, great." Kate said, impatiently. "When are we gonna go get your other aliens back?"

"Working on it!" Matheo said, pointing finger guns at Kate, before climbing out of the crater.

"Do you think you could, like, track them with the Optitrix's GPS, or something?" Kate asked, climbing out of the pit.

"It can do that?" Matheo asked. "Well, isn't that convenient? Let's try that, yeah!"

Matheo scrolled over to the GPS app, and it began sweeping the area around him, showing 6 yellow, glowing dots around him.

"Six?" Kate asked, confused. "I only saw, like, 4 of those dudes jaywalking."

"J... Jaywalking." Matheo repeated. "... Do I even WANT to know?"

"We're not talking about this." Kate said, strictly. "Let's go find those alien dudes, man."

"Okay, DON'T want to know." Matheo said, nodding. "That confirms my hypothesis."

"Alright, well, I'll go get Todd, and we'll-"

"WAIT, NO!" Matheo said, grabbing her arm. "We can't tell Todd, no way, nuh-uh, not happening!"

"Geez, alright, okay!" Kate said, shaking Matheo off of her.

"Awesome!" Matheo said. "This is a you-and-me thing, right, sister?! Doesn't it feel wonderful to finally be useful to me?!"

"Keep talking to me like that, and I'm not helping you." Kate sighed. "Now where do we go first?"

"SnailGuy." Matheo said, reading the DNA signature. "He's over at the Denver monument in the park. We've gotta move."

()

"Hyu is the best!" A kid wearing a backward baseball cap, as well as a striped shirt, said. "Look, he's demolishing that shopping cart!"

He pointed at Matheo's escaped DiamondGuy sample, who was currently tearing a poor ice-cream salesman's cart, while he cowered behind some bushes. Suddenly, the real Hyu ran into the scene, and magnetically grabbed the pieces of the cart, before he broke it over the sample's head.

"Wow." Hyu said, dazed. "These guys are tougher than I thought they were. I kind of thought he'd at least FEEL that..."

The DiamondGuy sample turned around, to reveal a black-and-yellow pattern on his uniform.

"Woah... Besu? Is that you?! But where's your symbol?"

"BESU'S GONE ROGUE?!" A kid behind the crowd, wearing a toy Besu watch screamed in horror, before he fainted to the ground.

"Mo's never been the type to take aliens on a test drive..." Hyu mused under his breath. "Especially ones he already knows how to use... What's going on here?"

The sample lumbered at Hyu, before placing his hand to the ground, and causing a giant crystal spike to come lunging out of the ground, directly towards him. In response, Hyu jumped out of the way, activating his Splicatrix, and selecting the first alien he saw, before exploding into blue light.

()

Todd's uniform disappeared, before blue, fur-covered veins leaped out of the Splicatrix's core, and consumed his body, racing towards his eyes, which each split into two. As his legs shot up into his abdomen, a black-and-blue tail shot out of his hips. His arms split into 8, and covered the sides of his body. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he beat his chest.

()

The light faded, and SpiderMonkey jumped out of the resulting smoke, landing on top of the crystal protrusion, and running directly at the DiamondGuy sample, who had turned around to walk shot 2 webs at his back, before pulling him, and by effect throwing him directly at the crowd of people.

"Oh, no, WAIT! STOP!" SpiderMonkey yelled, jumping into the middle of the crowd.

SpiderMonkey barely managed to grab DiamondGuy's sample out of the sky, before throwing him into the fountain, causing it to break into several small rocks, and water to spray everywhere. The crowd cheered for him, but Hyu's work wasn't over yet. DiamondGuy's sample climbed out of the fountain, before lifting a large chunk of the fountain out of the hole, and threw it directly at SpiderMonkey, who's eyes widened.

()

Meanwhile, in the center of Downtown Denver, the SnailGuy sample was tearing up the natural park around him, since he couldn't control the natural acid he was constantly generating. As such, there were rivers of acid running throughout the park, causing their fumes to begin lifting into the air. Kate, carryingMatheo, flew into the scene, and dropped Matheo onto the ground, before landing and demutating her body.

"Holy crap." Matheo said, looking upon the fresh hell that the park had become. "SnailGuy did this?! GEEZ, he's more powerful than I thought."

"I can see the sample. It looks like he's doing it by accident." Kate said. "What's the plan?"

"Easy. I try out one of these new guys, well you go take care of the acid, and trapped civilians."

"You got it." Kate nodded, before mutating her arms into those of WaterGuy's, and DragonFly's wings on her back.

Matheo turned to the park, and dialed in one of his new aliens, and slapped the core down, exploding into red.

()

Large, rock-like scales tore themselves out of Matheo's skin, and the rest of his body, while a large, thick tail tore itself out of his back. Small, black rocks formed at the end of his tail, as well as along his back, and onto his head, which became a hybrid of a human and a dinosaur. An Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he roared.

()

"REXGUY!" He yelled, before leaping into the air.

As RexGuy was soaring through the air, he noticed SnailGuy burning a tunnel-esque trail through the middle of the park. RexGuy grinned, before picking his tail up, then dropping it, speeding his decent significantly. RexGuy landed directly next to SnailGuy, shattering the ground around him, and causingSnailGuy's sample to fly a dozen feet into the air, then fall back into the crater. As he did, drops of acid came flying out, and landed on RexGuy's body, though they had no effect on him, as he lumbered towards him, cracking his knuckles.

"Listen here, you shelled slug." RexGuy said, menacingly. "You're going back in the Optitrix, one way or the other!"

RexGuy grabbed SnailGuy's sample, and as he did, the Omnitrix symbol began beeping blue, before bothSnailGuy, AND RexGuy disappeared, leaving a human Matheo coughing as he stumbled out of the smoking crater.

"Yeah..." He said, in a daze. "And let that be a lesson to ya."

"Slimisapien DNA recovered." The Optitrix beeped in confirmation.

"Awesome." Matheo said, as Kate floated down, and neutralized the last of the acid by blasting it with water.

"You know, I'm really surprised that worked." Kate said, thoughtfully. "You ready to go get that next alien?"

"No!" Matheo said, plopping on the ground, out of breath. "Let's take a break."

"If there's time." Kate said, shrugging.

As she said this, a large, orange, eyeless beat came charging down the road in front of them, as people began running from it, into the park. Kate and Matheo looked at each other, then back to the street.

"DOGGUY got out, too? … Okay, there's no time for a break." Matheo admitted, as Kate picked him up, and flew after the DogGuy sample.

()

SpiderMonkey gulped, as he saw the large fountain base, barreling at him, and quickly slapped hisSplicatrix symbol, before once again becoming embraced by a harsh blue glow.

()

SpiderMonkey's 8 arms became large, orange, and muscular. He grew a snout, and several sharp teeth. His Omnitrix symbol grew 4 sharp protrusions, resembling an 'X.'

()

SpiderRathgrew 4 claws out of his 4 front hands, before using them to slice the fountain base in half, and jumped through it.

"SPIDERRATH!" He screamed, before retracting his claws, and punching DiamondGuy full force, with 6 of his arms, sending him sprawling backwards, and landing on his head. "And you, were just leaving!"

DiamondGuy growled angrily, both running at SpiderRath, and grabbing his head, slamming it into the brick road, then throwing him into a tree. As DiamondGuy ran over to him, SpiderRath tore the tree out of the ground, and used it to smack DiamondGuy through the fence into the road, where a semi-truck honked, and hit him, head-on, smacking DiamondGuy into a nearby alley.

"Home-run!" SpiderRath yelled, and chased after him, before the DogGuy sample ran into him, and dragged him incredibly quickly through the city streets. "THIS ISN'T OVER!" He yelled at the DiamondGuysample.

()

Meanwhile, Kate, who had changed to Yunai, was carrying Besu through the sky, and she lowered herself down, so she could get a better look at the DogGuy sample.

"Hey... I think that's Todd!" Yunai said, pointing at SpiderRath, who was currently trying to get DogGuy to stop dragging him.

"Oh, CRAP!" Besu said. "Yunai, we gotta go home, right now!"

"Would you get over it?!" Yunai yelled in response. "He could use our help, and you'll fall faster!"

"WHAT?!" Besu yelled, as she dropped him.

Besu looked at his Optitrix, which was already good-to-go. He activated it, and scrolled to another one of his new aliens, this one being small, and having three spikes on his head.

"Good thing today's the day of free recharges!" Besu yelled, and slammed the core down, exploding into a red light, and transforming into:

"FASTGUY?!" He said in horror, as he looked at himself. "This is a really bad-!"

He couldn't finish his sentence, as he was interrupted by slamming face-first into the concrete road. The cars around came screeching to a halt, and started honking at him. He got up sheepishly, and tried to apologize, but the car horns continued honking even more, so he just decided to chase after the car, anyways.

()

Meanwhile, Yunai was catching up to the DogGuy sample, and mutated her right arm into HandyMan's, before using her 2 new arms to tear the lamp-post out of the ground, and smacked DogGuy in the head with it. As a result, she smacked both SpiderRath AND DogGuy into the air, as they both landed on top of a skyscraper. Yunai gasped, and flew to the top of the building, landing on the roof.

"Kate?!" She heard a voice say. "Is that you?"

She looked down, to see SpiderRath getting up, and rubbing his head. She floated down, and bit her lip.

"What's going on here?! Why are a bunch of Matheo's running around wreaking havoc?!"

"They're not Matheo..." Yunai said, nervously.

"Then what's the deal?"

"I don't really know?" Yunai said, worriedly.

"Okay, fine, keep your secrets." SpiderRath said, shaking his head. "Now, where'd that DogGuy go?"

"I don't know, but he's probably either on a different building, or climbing down this one."

"Good point." SpiderRath agreed, before he paused, and hesitated. "But... If that's the case, then what's that noise?"

"Uh... What noise?" Yunai asked, looking around. "I don't hear any-"

She stopped herself, because she DID hear something, and it sounded like glass and concrete repeatedly being cracked. It almost sounded like something was punching holes in the building... Or, maybe even climbing it.

"I think something's scaling the building!" Yunai said, looking back at SpiderRath. "It sounds really heavy, too!"

"Oh crap." SpiderRath said. "I think we've been follo-"

The twins were interrupted, by the DNA sample of leaping onto the building's roof, and yelling in anger, and lunging directly at SpiderRath, who's eyes widened.

"Not again."

()

FastGuy was finally about to catch up with the DogGuy sample, when suddenly, Yunai dropped in out of nowhere, holding a lamp-post, and used it to smack both SpiderRath, and DogGuy's sample onto the top of a skyscraper.

"What the-?!" FastGuy yelled, slowing down, and watching Yunai fly to the top of the building, too. "HEY! What do you think you're doing?!"

FastGuy ran directly into the wall, then running up the wall, around the building in a spiral. As he was doing this, DogGuy's sample came flying down from the building, and landed on top of a much smaller building next to the skyscraper. FastGuy yelled in frustration, and changed directions, before he jumped off of the side of the skyscraper, and landed next to DogGuy, who resumed running around on top of the rooftops, jumping from one roof to the next.

"Oh, no you don't!" FastGuy yelled, speeding after him. "You're not getting away easy!"

FastGuy vaulted over several roof pipes, and jumped onto the roof's exit, before leaping off, and landing on the next building. He ran up to DogGuy, and grabbed at him, but missed. FastGuy yelled in anger, which startled DogGuy's sample, causing him to fall into the alleyway below, and FastGuy as well. They both fell into the lid of a dumpster, before bouncing off of it in separate directions.

"Okay, nowhere to run." FastGuy said, having cornered DogGuy's sample. "This'll be quick, big guy."

FastGuy reached a claw out to DogGuy, and grabbed his shoulder, but nothing happened. He tried again, but to no avail.

"What the heck?!" FastGuy yelled. "What's going on, why are you still HERE?! THIS ISN'T FAIR!"

FastGuy's yelling startled DogGuy, who promptly swatted him into the concrete wall, and began running off.

"Oh, no, not again!" FastGuy yelled, running after the sample, once again.

()

"We gotta get outta here, right now, sis!" SpiderRath insisted, but Yunai merely stepped up, and cricked her neck.

"Not a chance." She said, smugly. "I'm taking this walking chandelier DOWN."

"That's not your best idea!" SpiderRath insisted, though he wasn't about to try this fusion's ability to crawl on walls.

Yunai ran at DiamondGuy's sample, mutating her arms into Refractors, and attacked him, however he quickly overpowered her, and threw her over the edge of the building, before SpiderRath caught her, and pulled her back up.

"This guy's tough." Yunai said, fully mutating herself into a female Refractor. "But not tough enough!"

"Yunai, are you sure about this?!"

"Quit being a baby, bro! He's just a DNA sample, he probably doesn't even know whats happening right now!"

"Or maybe he can think of more deadly ways to kill us since he ISN'T a human?!"

"Trust me, that's not how these things work. Now are you gonna help me wipe this dude, or not?"

"... Fine." SpiderRath agreed, as the 2 turned to face the DiamondGuy sample.

The twins both ran at him, as Yunai created a barrage of spindly, diamond limbs that rose out of the ground below them, and began attacking the DiamondGuy sample, who shielded himself, before combusting the shield, and destroying the limbs. In the explosion of diamond shards, SpiderRath came flying through the mess, and delivered a devastating punch directly in DiamondGuy's face, causing him to stumble onto his back.

Yunai leapt into the air, and, during her descent, kicked DiamondGuy's sample directly through the roof of the building into the top floor. "Going down!" She yelled.

"Nice going!" SpiderRath said, grabbing DiamondGuy's shoulders, and throwing him through the window next to him, causing him to fall down to the road below.

"Thanks, I've always's been pretty 'cable'-ale of these things!"

"... I don't get it" SpiderRath replied.

"You know, like 'elevator cable?' "

"Oooh, like with an elevator... I get it."

"Was it that hard to understand?"

()

FastGuy fell out of the sky, yelling all the while, and grabbed onto DogGuy's shoulders, before he managed to reabsorb him into the Optitrix. There was a bright flash of orange light, and a now human Besu fell into the sidewalk, as the Optitrix confirmed that Besu had been re-captured. He reactivated the GPS, only to discover that the next alien was just around the corner from him, and it was:

"FaceBall?" He asked, before a black, rock-like object fell directly at his feet.

Besu's eyes widened. He yelled, and grabbed the ball, and threw it back to where it came from, causing it to explode, the reverb being enough to push Besu onto his back, as he shouted out in pain. As he got up, he saw FaceBall, walking blankly, shooting a bomb at even the slightest inconvenience, like a pebble, for example.

"Okay, FaceBall." Besu said, calmly. "You need to come with me, okay?"

In response, FaceBall shot a nonexplosive projectile into Besu's chest, doubling him over in pain, before he continued on his destructive stroll.

"Okay, you wanna play it like that?" Besu asked through clenched teeth, before activating his Optitrix. "Fine, but you're not gonna like what comes next."

He slammed the core down, and transformed into:

"ROLLGUY!" He yelled, as he curled up into a ball, and careened directly into FaceBall, running him over.

"Huh." RollGuy said, looking at his handiwork. "Uh... Yeah, okay, that was easy... Too easy, almost."

RollGuy bent over, and reabsorbed FaceBall into his Optitrix, and transformed back into a human. He nodded happily at the fact that he'd gotten so many aliens back, before he heard the sound of metal breaking behind him, and looked to see DiamondGuy rolling off of a completely destroyed car, and muttering under his breath.

"Speak of the devil." Besu said, and pointed his Optitrix at him. "You're coming with me!"

DiamondGuy got to his feet and looked at Besu, before noting his Optitrix. He yelled in anger, before picking up the nearby car, and chucking it at Besu, who froze, before running out of the way.

"Holy crap!" Besu shouted, running for dear life. "When did they get SMART?!"

DiamondGuy landed in front of him, and prepared to beat Besu into the ground, before he was suddenly electrocuted, causing a large explosion, sending DiamondGuy sprawling back a good way. Besu turned back around to see Amphibian, rising from the ground, and crossing his tentacles, judgingly.

"It's not okay to beat people up." He said, before turning to Besu, and crossing his arms. "I knew it." He pointed to Besu's Optitrix. "You tried to mess with that thing again, didn't you?"

"Wha-a-at?" Besu asked, trying to play it cool. "No, me? Never."

"And now, you've got to reabsorb these guys, right?"

"... Okay yeah, I did."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Amphibian sighed, before turning to DiamondGuy, who had recovered, and was lumbering towards them, once again. "This guy, on the other hand."

Amphibian flew directly into the DiamondGuy sample, causing him to become even more electrocuted.

"Hyu, what are you doing?!" Besu asked, fearfully. "You know DiamondGuy doesn't get affected by electricity!"

Amphibian flew out of DiamondGuy, and turned back to him, to see he was, indeed, unaffected.

"I see." Was all he said, before DiamondGuy grabbed him, and flung him into a fire hydrant.

()

Meanwhile, Yunai was flying after GoldenGuy's DNA sample, at top speed. For whatever reason,GoldenGuy's sample was flying around the entirety of the city, extremely fast. His look was blank, as with the rest of the samples, and he didn't say anything. Yunai flew over to him, before mutating her arms into Refractor's, before she grabbed onto the board, and mutated the rest of her body into a female version of Refractor.

"Let's see you keep flying after this, fly boy!"

She was bringing the board down, and in response, GoldenGuy simply stared ahead, unfazed. However, they were quickly picking up speed, and were approaching the ground ever quickly, but it was still going to take forever. So, Yunai pulled the rest of the board to her chest, and mutated wings on her back, and used that to fly down, even quicker to the surface.

"So..." She said, trying to strike up a conversation. "Wanna talk about something?"

()

"Okay, time to try a new approach." Besu said, before pressing the second button on the other side of his Optitrix, after he activated it.

"Optimal pre-selection mode activated." The Optitrix said.

Besu grinned, and spun the rim of the Optitrix as if it were a roulette, and slammed down the core a few seconds later, exploding in electrifying red light, and transforming into:

"OPTIMAL ARMSGUY!" He yelled.

Optimal ArmsGuy's arms were covered with forwards-facing spikes, and his knuckles were all covered with iron. His whole body was covered in a skin-tight armor, presumably supplied by the Optitrix, and lastly, his Omnitrix symbol grew 4 protrusions, causing it to resemble an 'X.'

"Alright, glossy boy, let's dance!" Optimal ArmsGuy said, grabbing DiamondGuy's ankles, hoisting him into the air, before slamming him head-first into the pavement.

He then spun around in a circle several times, building up momentum, before letting go, sendingDiamondGuy flying into a taxi. Then, finally, Optimal ArmsGuy reabsorbed DiamondGuy back into the Optitrix, and was forcibly retransformed back into a human.

"That was a quick time-out." Amphibian said, floating over, and rubbing his head.

"It happens whenever I re-absorb one of those guys." Besu explained. I have to make physical contact with them for a certain amount of time, and BOOM, they're back!"

"So, who's left?"

"Only one guy." Besu confirmed. "GoldenGuy."

"Oh, seriously?" Amphibian turned back to human. "Yunai's on that already!"

"Speaking of..." Besu pointed to the sky above them, to see Yunai, flying into the ground,and piledrivingGoldenGuy into the concrete, before holding him down.

"Guys!" Yunai yelled, straining to stop him from escaping. "Any day now!"

Besu nodded, and connected the Optitrix, with GoldenGuy's body, causing him to disappear, and become reabsorbed into the Optitrix, as it began to beep.

"DNA-Library restored." It confirmed.

"Alright!" Hyu shouted, high-fiving Besu, and Yunai. "We did it!"

"You can say that again!" Yunai agreed. "Now, let's go home."

"Sure, but..." Hyu turned to Besu. "Before we do... Besu, why'd you try to hack the Optitrix, again?"

"Because I wanted to prove I could go to BellWood, and figure out what's up with the... The whole place, really. But you didn't listen to me!"

"It's not that I didn't listen." Hyu said, trying to find the right words. "I just wanted you to think about the ramifications of your actions, you know?"

"Whatever." Besu said. "But you'll consider going, someday, right?"

"Duh, of course I will." Hyu said, patting his brother's shoulder. "But we have to also try to live in the now, you know?'

Besu smiled, and hugged his brother. "Thanks, dude."

"Uh, no problem? I, uh, didn't know this meant so much to you."

"I just, kinda, want to prove myself, you know?" Besu replied.

"Well, you don't have to." Hyu looked to both his siblings. "Now, who's ready to go home?"


	17. R4: Vilgax Stranded!

"Increase the ship's speed!" Vilgax demanded, banging an almost fully-formed arm against the side of the tube. "We must reach Earth! I will not lose the Omnitrixes again!"

"Yes sir!" One of his grunts replied, pushing a lever forwards, causing the ship to rapidly speed up.

"Years of defeat, years of disappointment. These inexperienced younglings are my only shot at getting an Omnitrix."

"What about the other 2?" A higher-ranked soldier inquired. "If you had such trouble with only a single wielder, perhaps 3 would make such a task impossible."

"True." Vilgax noted. "Perhaps it would be wise to acquire a few partners before we make our move."

"But, where would we find anyone of comparable strength to you, Vilgax?" Psyphon asked, his hands behind his back.

"An excellent question indeed." Vilgax said, thoughtfully.

Suddenly, the ship around them shook violently, causing Vilgax's healing chamber to disengage, and fly out of it's holding bay. The chamber was thrown into the wall, and exploded, sending Vilgax rolling onto the floor. His missing arm was scabbed over, and bloody. He looked towards the ceiling, and saw that a large hole was being cut in it.

"We're being boarded." Vilgax said.

"We're going to die!" One of the grunts yelled.

"No, maybe these could be the allies we were hoping for!" Psyphon yelled, hopefully.

"Not in this part of the galaxy." Vilgax replied. "Damn it, if only I wasn't weakened. I could send these bandits back where they came from as soon as they touched my ship... !"

Through the hole in the ship, a grenade was thrown through it, and exploded into a red smoke seconds after. Vilgax heard his grunts scream in pain, before it was stopped. He saw several hooded figures emerge from the smoke, staring at him with yellow, glowing eyes.

"What do you want...?" Vilgax asked weakly, before they each nodded to one another, and attacked him, knocking him unconscious.

The smoke cleared soon afterwards, revealing that everyone aboard the ship had been rendered unconscious, as well. Another larger, rectangular hole was cut through one of the walls, and a bridge was erected between Vilgax's ship, and the attacker's ship. The figures grabbed Vilgax's crew members, and dragged them into their ship.

"What about that one?" A figure with a dark-grey robe asked, pointing at Vilgax, crippled, and writhing in pain.

"Leave it." A figure in a blue robe replied. "He was likely some sort of pet. It would just another mouth for us to feed."

The grey figure nodded, and the group of figures exited the ship, and re-boarded their own ship, leaving Vilgax's ship crewless, and looted, and drifting through space.

()

Vilgax saw himself, floating through an endless, green, black, and white void. He looked around, in confusion. Suddenly, he saw millions of versions of Ben Tennyson, all surrounding him. They began laughing at him, and transforming into different types of aliens, and using them to tear Vilgax apart, taunting him all the while.

"Hey, Vil-Geek!" One yelled, punching him across his face. "You really couldn't do anything right!"

"Some warlord!" Another joined in, dropkicking him in the stomach.

"You got your butt kicked by a KID!" The 10-year-old version yelled, before transforming into WayBig, and punching him into the ground.

Vilgax groaned in pain, before that groan turned into a full-on shout, and became surrounded by purple fire. The Bens stopped, for a moment. It was enough time for him to tear the Omnitrixes off their arms, and lift them into the air, and cause them to explode, killing multiple Bens close to him. He grinned, maniacally.

"You kids really are NOTHING without your toys." Vilgax said, before firing several fiery beams form his body, annihilating the Bens around him effortlessly.

After the massacre was finished, he saw only a single Ben left, still wearing an Omnitrix, and glaring at him.

"How dare you still live!" Vilgax shouted, running at him.

Ben activated his Omnitrix, and transformed into a man, as black as space, with stares all around his body, and a white outline. He had three horns extruding from his head, green eyes, and a green Omnitrix symbol on his chest.

Vilgax stopped in his tracks. "A celestialsapien...?"

Ben lifted his hand, and in an instant, the vision was over.

()

Vilgax awoke, to see the current state of his ship, and that his body had fully regenerated.

"How long have I been unconscious?" Vilgax asked, looking around the ship, before he remembered. "Those looters!"

He stood up, and banged his arm into the side of the ship, causing another hole in the wall to open, and sand to fly through it.

"That is strange. The temperature here is far too hot to be Earth. It must be some kind of desert planet."

He exited the ship, and looked around the heated environment, putting a hand over his eyes, He suddenly recoiled back into the shade of the ship. Since his left arm had only just regenerated, it couldn't take this planet's heat. Vilgax groaned, before he grabbed a still remaining cloth banner, and fashioned it into a cloak, which would cover most of his body from the heat.

"Those rats must have disabled the fuel systems. Afterwards, this planet's atmosphere pulled me towards it." Vilgax said, thinking aloud as he exited the ship, and traversed the planet. "It doesn't matter, though. It's going to take much more than this to deny me."

()

Vilgax trekked across the barren wasteland for many hours, with only his hatred of Ben Tennyson, and his lust for the Omnitrix keeping him going. He was, however, quickly beginning to starve. He estimated he could only keep going for another couple of hours. Thankfully, it had become nighttime, so he had an easier time seeing things.

"With luck." Vilgax said, looking around the planet. "I won't be the only one out here at night."

However, as he was looking, his back was suddenly struck by 2 large thorns, which impaled him. He clenched his teeth, and breathed through them. The animal that attacked him shook it's head, before dislodging his body, and sending him rolling down the sand-dune he was on the top of. Vilgax clutched his bleeding gut, before glaring back up at the silhouette of the animal.

"Just what I needed." He said, before taking off his cloak, and speedily tying it into a bandage for his chest.

Vilgax leaped onto the sand-dune, before landing in front of the animal. It resembled a mammoth, but with dark green, striped fur, and 4 eyes, as well as generally being much larger, as well. Vilgax shouted out, and grabbed onto it's tusks, before breaking them off, and slamming them together. The creature stumbled backwards in pain, before rolling off the dune, howling all the while. It fell into the bottom of the dune, with a large explosion of sand, trying to stand up. Vilgax stood over it, clutching the tusks, menacingly.

"A valiant fight." He said, triumphantly. "But a futile one."

He jumped into the air, and used the velocity to drive the tusks into the animal's side. The creature saw him, however, and grabbed him with it's trunk, before driving him, head-first, into the sand. Vilgax shook off the pain, only to see the creature standing above him. It opened it's jaws, and attempted to eat Vilgax. He grabbed the creatures top and bottom jaws in response, and yelled, before snapping it's mouth backwards. The creature's blood spilled onto Vilgax's face, before he shoved it off of him.

"I think you've got this backwards." Vilgax said, grabbing the tusks. "YOU'RE the meal."

He stabbed the creature repeatedly with the tusks, and carved a large hole in it's innards. Vilgax grinned. He laid it's fur coat across the ground, and set it alight using his eye-lasers. He turned back to the creature's corpse, and prepared to gut it.

()

That night, Vilgax sat next to the fire, staring off into the distance. He thought of his brother, Nardloj. The 2 of them had always idolized conflicts of war. They'd often play pretend, in which Nardloj encouraged his bother to pretend as if he was actually killing him. When he'd refuse, Nardloj would say nothing, but gave him a sad, almost disappointed look.

()

"_I don't get it." Vilgax said, a child, and sitting in the grass, next to his brother. "Why does it have to be all... realistic?"_

"_Because the war will be." Nardloj replied, solemnly._

"_What war?"_

"_The Enzyme war. We're fighting against the Limaxes, who've developed biological weapons." Nardloj chuckled under his breath. "We come from a family of warlords, Vilgax. You'll have to fight in that war soon. Sooner than you should..." He paused. "... Sooner than anyone should."_

"_You'll be there, right?" Vilgax asked, not skipping a beat._

_Nardloj stopped, and looked at him in surprise. "Oh, I... I thought you'd be scared."_

"_I'm not scared." Vilgax replied. "Because I know you'll be there, right next to me."_

"_It's not always going to be like that, you know." _

"_Yes, it will. No war will tear us apart."_

_Nardloj smiled, and put his hand on Vilgax's shoulder. "I hope so."_

()

Vilgax's relaxed hand became a fist. He cringed at how naïve he used to be. Though, if he was being honest, it wasn't his fault. It was Nardloj's, for making war seem fun, and innocent, merely so he could become enthralled with it at a young age. He looked over to his makeshift fire, which had died out a while ago, and was now only a few embers, floating off into the night.

"Those days are behind me." He reassured himself. "And for good reason."

Vilgax was no longer a child, and he refused to fantasize about being one. He stood up, and began walking again, into the infinite horizon.

()

The sun was rising, now. It was morning. And Vilgax was unaffected. He never understood why certain races were so enthralled by the sky, only because of the sun's reflection. Instead, he continued onwards. There was a large ravine in the sand, with various pieces of junk within it ahead of him. He jumped into the pit, sliding to a halt once he reached the bottom.

"Intriguing." Vilgax said, looking around himself. "A civilization appears to have existed here at some time."

As he finished this thought, a floating, angular, slim vehicle rammed into him, causing him to skid back into the sand. He lodged one of his claws into the sand to stop himself from falling onto his back. Vilgax looked up at the ship, and saw an alien teenager, with green skin, and two tentacles coming out of the back of her head mounting it. There was a helmet blocking her face, but Vilgax could tell from her body language that she wasn't used to seeing a Chimera Sui Generis on this planet.

"Or perhaps it is still inhabited." Vilgax said to himself, as he saw the vehicle turning around.

Vilgax ran towards an exposed, massive chunk of rebar, tore it out of the sand, and pointed it at his assailant. He grunted, and threw it at the driver, who, in response, raised her hand, and telekinetically gripped it, and instantly tore it into 2 pieces, before re-angling them, and launching them at Vilgax. He dived out of the way, narrowly missing the speeding vehicle.

"Who are you?" Vilgax asked the girl, but she didn't respond. "I do not hail from this planet. I need to acquire a ship, and travel to a planet known as 'Earth.' Do you know where that is?"

"Don't try to converse with me." The girl replied, annoyed. "Even if I wanted to, this plant has no 'ship.' If it did, I'd be out of here a long time ago, that's for sure."

"Impossible." Vilgax replied, walking towards the girl.

"It's true." The girl sighed. "But you're not going anywhere, ship or no ship."

"Why do you continue to attack me? I am not your enemy. I have crash-landed on this planet by accident, I have no quarrel with you."

"Then why am I giving you such a hard time?"

"Because I don't wish to fight with you. You are the first living species I have come into contact with in days."

"Flattering." The girl said, sarcastically. "But I'm not going to help you. I'm here to hunt monsters like you."

"If you wish to interfere with my mission, very well." Vilgax said, removing his cloak, revealing extremely dark-green arms, charred from the heat, and faintly-glowing veins. "But I should warn you, I am far more dangerous than I appear!"

Vilgax sprinted at the girl, leaving a vertical shockwave behind him, spraying sand in several directions. The girl grinned, and telekinetically grabbed a chunk of rebar, before charging her vehicle at him, holding the chunk like a jousting pole. Vilgax jumped over the vehicle, but the girl was prepared, as she swiftly hoisted the rebar up, scratching his shoulder enough for it to begin to bleed. Vilgax landed on the ground, clutching his shoulder.

"You like it?" The girl asked, pointing to her vehicle. "It's an all-new model, the JUP-31."

"I don't care." Vilgax said.

He was struggling to even stay standing at this point. The technicians had warned that the best course of action would be for him to remain stationary for a couple weeks, but now, here he was, brawling with some random alien, fighting tooth-and-nail for his own life. It wasn't ideal, and it would probably have killed a lesser man, but, as he had said, Vilgax didn't care.

"Yeah, well." The girl shrugged. "You will when I run you OVER with it."

She cranked up the fuel, and sped at Vilgax once again. He looked up, slightly dazed, but threw his hands forwards, catching the JUP, and pushing against it. His claws left massive dents in the JUP's armor plating, and he shouted through clenched teeth. In an instant, he tore through the protective layer, and ripped out the JUP's engine, causing it to sputter, shake, and fall to the ground, sending the girl flying into the sand. Vilgax walked over to her, and glared down at her.

"Okay, alright." The girl said, rolling over, and sitting up. "You win. Happy?"

"Far from it." Vilgax said, crossing his arms. "I am still weakend, and still stranded. I should kill you for your impotence."

"So... May I as what you're waiting for?" She asked.

"Because, I may need your help. Perhaps you could lead me back to your city, and to a Radio Tower. I may be able to contact Vilgaxia, and request a back-up ship."

"Oh, I don't hail from a city, more of a village. But we DO actually have a Comms Unit. I think you could use that."

"Very well." Vilgax nodded. "I suppose we will be walking, as well."

"Unfortunately, yes." The girl sighed. "Could you help me up?"

Vilgax wordlessly outstretched his hand, and the girl grabbed it, and was pulled up. She pulled off her helmet, revealing a face with no nose.

"I suppose we should get introductions out of the way." The girl said, looking to Vilgax. "Name's Maya. Nice to meetcha."

"Vilgax, conqueror of worlds." He replied.

"Very funny." Maya rolled her eyes. "Vilgax is dead. And even if he wasn't you would NOT be him. He has no reason to be here."

"I am not here on purpose."

"Yeah, sure." Maya said, starting to walk. "Your just some random Chimera pretending to be famous. I get it, I've done that before."

"Fine." Vilgax said, walking with her. "Which planet have I been stranded on, by the way?"

"Klagrod" Maya replied. "Not much to attract tourists, but it's nice if you want a different token desert planet than your other token desert planets."

"I see." Vilgax nodded. "I haven't done any gross amounts of research on this planet, but from what I do know, it does seem to match-up."

"Yeah. I get that one quite a bit." Maya nodded.

"How far away, exactly, is this village of yours?" Vilgax asked.

"Eh." Maya shrugged. "It's quite a ways away. I'd estimate a good 12 hours."

"Walking, or driving?"

"Driving." Maya said. "Uh... Sorry."

"It's alright." Vilgax sighed. "We have the chill of the night to keep us refreshed. I suppose that's the most we could hope for."

"Actually, I might know a shortcut, if you're in a time-crunch." Maya suggested. "The railway, it's only about a mile from here. If we get lucky, we could jump onto one of the trains running to the village."

"Not a bad idea." Vilgax said. "Very well. Direct me to this railway."

()

"_I want to go home." Nardloj said, lying on his bunk-bed, in the barracks._

"_What happened to good attitude?" Vilgax replied, smarmily._

"_Can it." Nardloj replied. "Borrak was killed today in the field, and nobody said anything. My best friend. I loved him. And now he's just gone."_

"_It probably sucks." Vilgax said, trying to relate to him. _

"_You wouldn't get it." Nardloj rolled over in his bed. "I'm your only friend here. You'll never know what it's like to have to put up with somebody leaving you, forever."_

"_And that's a good thing." Vilgax said, sternly. "No matter what happened to Borrak, it won't happen to me. We'll always be together, right?"_

"_I can have more than one friend, you know."_

"_Apparently not."_

_Nardloj jumped out from his bunk, and landed on the floor, waking up everyone around him. He grabbed Vilgax from his covers, and slammed him against the wall._

"_What the hell is your problem?!" Nardloj yelled in Vilgax's face. "He was my best friend, and you don't even care! Nobody cares!"_

"_You'll never get anywhere in war if you get choked up over a single death." Vilgax said, quietly. "That's what Dad always said. We're a family of warlords, Nardloj. You're not gonna last if you keep this up."_

"_Shut up!" Nardloj punched the wall next to Vilgax's face, narrowly missing it. "War, or not, you're my brother... I don't want to lose you to this whole 'tough guy' act... Like Dad."_

"_Our father was a famous, and effective fighter. He never lost a single battle, because he never showed any weakness against an enemy."_

_Nardloj dropped Vilgax to the floor. He was speechless. He only got into his bed, and began to sob. Vilgax looked around, and saw the other soldiers staring at him. He coughed awkwardly, before climbing into bed, as well._

()

"I wonder what you're thinking about, back there." Maya called to Vilgax. "You haven't said a word all hour."

"I don't see why it concerns you." Vilgax muttered.

"How are we supposed to be a dynamic duo, if you go mute every few seconds?"

"We are not a duo." Vilgax groaned. "I'm a notorious galactic warlord, and you are a teenager who happens to have the information I need."

"Not with that attitude." Maya laughed.

"I've had enough jocular attitude for one lifetime."

"Why? Did I bring up some bad memories?"

"Yes, actually. Let's just say once I get to Earth, and finish my mission, it'll be good to actually deal with a serious and solemn war atmosphere, and not have to constantly deal with immature children."

"Ah." Maya nodded. "Bad parenting experience."

"Perhaps you should quit guessing."

"Oop, wait!" Maya yelled, pointing at a bright light behind them. "Here comes the train!"

"Brilliant." Vilgax smirked.

The two of them began sprinting away ahead of the train. It ran past them, revealing a hundred train cars, as well. Vilgax reached his arm out towards the side of a car, and unraveled it into a dozen small, thick tendrils. He looked at Maya, who grabbed his other arm. Then, he wrapped his other hand around an exposed pipe on of the nearest car, lifting the pair off the ground.

"This is way better than my plan!"

"So it would seem!" Vilgax replied.

"Hey!" Maya grinned. "You just cracked a joke!"

"I'm not incapable of humor. Now hold on!"

Vilgax threw Maya onto the car, before pulling himself onto the roof, and breathing a sigh of relief. He examined his arm, which suddenly began to shoot pain through his body. Vilgax winced. The adrenaline must have cloaked the pain, but it was definitely still there.

"You're not in the best condition, are you?" Maya asked, slightly worried.

"No, I don't suppose I am." Vilgax sat down, cross-legged on the roof.

"What happened... Y'know, if you don't mind my asking."

"Surgery." Vilgax said. "I fused with a corrupted Galvanic Mechamorph, before being petrified, and sent into space to corrode for years. Before I could fully recover, my ship was attacked, looted, and I was left for dead on this barren planet."

"Ouch."

"Indeed... I don't suppose there's a tunnel coming up ahead of us? It would only be appropriate with my recent luck."

"No, no." Maya said. "No tunnels. It's all flat out here."

"Then, perhaps this ride could be somewhat relaxing. I believe I've missed that."

Maya nodded. "... So, who are you, really? I mean, do you really expect me to believe that you're ACTUALLY Vilgax?"

"You don't need to believe me. It doesn't matter."

"Well, if you were, I'd love to fight under you."

Vilgax looked at her, no expression visible on his face.

"It has been a long time since I've heard those words. I don't think I've heard that since I began my very 1st expedition to Earth."

"Well, we don't do very much fighting out here, and if what I've heard is true, you'd honestly be the best choice. You're effective, and you've got that whole lineage aspect."

"Yes. Though I suppose I won't be fighting too many wars until get off this planet."

"Hopefully by then you could tell me who you really are."

Vilgax stared at her. "Why is it so impossible for you to believe the truth? I AM Vilgax.'

"No, you're not." Maya shook her head. "Vilgax was my hero. He was everyone's hero. And he died a warrior's death, fighting the Notorious Ben Tennyson. You can't be him."

"My apologies for not appearing as noble as you would have wanted." Vilgax muttered.

"I mean, as if Vilgax, scourge of the universe, conqueror of worlds, would have been trapped on some planet by a random group of looters."

"Then perhaps you should refrain from meeting your heroes more often, child."

"I guess so." Maya looked up to the stars. "But maybe that's just how I am. Everyone back at the village always looked down on me. I always thought that if I could just meet Vilgax, just once, I could talk him into making me a legendary soldier, and have everyone FINALLY respect me, but... Well, now I guess that day's never coming."

"... You certainly have... Potential, when it comes to fighting."

"Yeah, I guess I do." Maya chuckled. "It started when I was a kid, things would just kind of start floating, or get flung across the room, randomly. I only just learned to control it a couple years ago. I call it 'MindBind,' for short."

"An ability like that could be incredibly useful on the battle field." Vilgax remarked. "If I were you, I wouldn't give up hope of becoming respected."

Maya's eyes became misty. She nodded, before starting to shiver.

"Hey, we should try and get inside the train car. It's cold out here." She muttered through chattering teeth.

"Yes, we should." Vilgax raised his hand above his head, and struck the train car roof with his claws.

He then used his index finger to carve a circular hole in the roof, before taking out the chunk he had separated, and flinging it to the sand. He motioned to Maya, and she jumped through the hole, and landed on the floor of the car, followed by Vilgax seconds later. His entire body still ached with pain, so he instantly fell over, and slumped against the side of the car.

"Hey, hey." Maya caught him, and lowered him down, gently. "Take it easy."

"I don't need your concern." Vilgax said.

"Yes, you do." Maya shook her head. "You may be a 'warlord,' but you can still be hurt. Now hold still."

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Relax. On this planet, you're dead meat if you don't know how to patch a wound correctly."

"You fool, there is no wound!" Vilgax said, straining himself. "My body is simply fragile. I can't take to keep running around."

"Right, okay." Maya tapped her foot. "Oh, I've got it. I'll pressure the spot that's in pain. How's that sound?"

"It sounds... Fine enough. I suppose it can't make things worse."

Maya took a small suitcase from her belt, and laid it on the ground. She removed a flexible bandaging device from it, and pressed it to Vilgax's chest.

"Where does it hurt?" She asked, moving it to the right. "Here?"

"No, the pain is on my left si-AH." Vilgax flinched.

"Found it." Maya grabbed a soft pack from the case, and pressed it to his side, before wrapping around his entire midsection, tightly. "There we go, anything else?"

"Well, there's also my left arm."

"Sure, what's the problem with that."

"I need you to make it numb. It hurts every time I try to do anything with it."

"Is that so?" Maya asked, looking through her case, before finding a device, resembling a magnifying glass, with a green lens. "Hmm. You said that it was in pain due to surgery, right?"

"Correct."

Maya turned the device on, and it projected a green light onto Vilgax's arm, allowing her to see his skeletal structure. She moved it over to the midpoint of his arm, before gasping.

"What's wrong with it?" Vilgax asked, eyeing her.

"Everything." Maya said, looking at it from different angles. "You're only supposed to have, like, a few bones in your arm, but you've got, like, twenty here."

"Twenty?" Vilgax asked.

"Yes. I think it was a byproduct of the unfinished surgery... These might be bone fragments. If that's the case, you're never gonna heal."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"The only reasonable solution, given our current tech, is..." May hesitated. "… To cut your arm open, fuse them into 2 larger bones, and put them back in."

"Are you insane?" Vilgax asked, looking at her. "Are you trying to KILL me?"

"If we don't do this, no surgery will ever be able to fix your arm. It's not perfect, but it's your only choice. Afterwards, I can give you a makeshift cast for your arm..."

"... Fine. But I assure you that if this does not work, you will not be returning to that village."

Maya gulped, but nodded, anyways. "You're skin's pretty tough. It's gonna take a while for any of my tools to cut through that."

"No need." Vilgax put his hand up. "You'll break your tools. I'll use my claws to cut it open."

"... Are you sure?" Maya asked.

"I'm sure." Vilgax replied, before digging his index finger into the top of his shoulder, deep, and groaned in pain.

He pulled the finger down along his arm, cutting a long, vertical hole down the center of his arm, and he tried to hold in his anguish. Maya forced the two halves open, and reached into the hole with tweezers, plucking out each fragment, and putting them in a bloody pile behind her. Once she had retrieved the final fragment, she lightly doused the pile, and sterilized the wound, so he wouldn't lost too much blood in the process.

"Have you ever had to do this on anyone before...?" Vilgax asked, drowsily, trying to not to black out.

"Myself." Maya admitted. "It happened when I was attacked by a Horner, you know, big furry, tusks."

"I've had an encounter with one, as well."

"Yeah. It ate my pet, Iggy." Maya replied. "I managed to retrieve him, but he lost his tail, and one of his eyes is permanently functionless. I... feel bad for him."

"A shame." Vilgax said, sympathetically.

Maya took out a small, elongated ring, and put 2 bones inside of it, before super heating it, fusing them together. She continued doing this for the next 20 minutes, and finally, she had 2 long, thick bones, which looked charred, and golden.

"These will have to do." She said, holding one up, before lodging it into the top half of Vilgax's arm.

"AH!" Vilgax moaned. "These are far too hot!"

"Relax, you big baby, I had to fuse them with fire. They're not gonna be a cozy temperature.

"... Just hurry it up." Vilgax sighed.

Maya put the second bone in, before taking a small, orange needle from her case. She heated it's tip, before attaching thin string to it, then jabbing it through the top of Vilgax's arm. Vilgax yelled, before falling unconscious once again. Maya smirked, and continued stitching his arm together.

()

_There was a loud explosion, as Vilgax and his brother Nardloj leaped into a trench, as an explosion was set off behind them. They crouched behind the wall, out of breath._

"_This is it!" He heard Nardloj shout. "We're gonnd die!"_

"_Get ahold of yourself." Vilgax commanded. "We're not going to die."_

"_You wouldn't even care if we did." Nardloj shot back._

"_People die in war, brother! It's no big deal."_

"_Maybe not to you."_

_Vilgax looked at him, and shook his head. He ran over to the nearby ladder, and climbed up it._

"_Vilgax, what are you doing!?"_

"_Teaching you a lesson." Vilgax replied. "You need to see that the only way we'll win is if we fight, not if we hide."_

"_Vilgax!" Nardloj screamed. "Come back!"_

_()_

_Vilgax sprinted across the battlefield, using his smaller size to his advantage, and easily dodging the fire that surrounded him. He and his brother were the only Chimera Sui Generis on the turf, so most of the soldiers didn't share his numerous advantages. His eyes glowed red, and he cut a large hole in the steel door in front of him._

"_Enemy intruder!" A soldier in dark yellow armor yelled, and shot at him. _

_Vilgax leapt out of the way, digging his claws into the wall, and unraveling his arms, before grabbing ahold of the soldier, and throwing him into the other soldiers, as they yelled. He grinned, before racing up to the roof, and slamming his fist through it, and climbing above it. Once he was above, the only soldier there was manning a turret gun. Vilgax ran over, and grabbed the man, before causally throwing him over the edge, and grabbing onto the turret gun's controls._

"_My turn." He said, before shooting at several enemy ships, causing them to explode seconds later._

_He looked down, and saw his brother, who was smiling at him from the trenches. Vilgax vaulted down, and ran over to him, grinning._

"_Did you see that?! I stormed the enemy base, and took down some of their reinforcements! I told you sitting and hiding would solve nothing!"_

"_Maybe you are right. I was merely worried about your safety, but maybe you have a point, after all."_

"_You can say that again."_

_Nardloj looked up, and saw one of the ships that Vilgax had shot down, and yelped, he lifted Vilgax over his head, before throwing him a dozen feet away. A split-second later, the ship crashed into him, exploding on impact, the aftermath enough to send Vilgax flying into the wall of the trench, and a pound of dirt fell on top of him._

"_Nardloj...!" Vilgax realized, and scrambled to the top of the pit, before seeing the wreckage, and falling to his knees._

_Vilgax tumbled backwards, back into the pit, tears streaming down his face. He shouted, but he could no longer hear it. His brother had died, the one thing he had foolishly believed could never happen. And he was right, Vilgax did care, but why, why did it have to happen like this? _

"_It was... My fault..." Vilgax said, to himself. _

()

Vilgax was awoken by a loud horn, blaring from the front of the train, and seconds later, a short, alien man opened the train doors, and looked at him and Maya, who both nervously waved to the man, who

shook his head, and motioned to the 2 of them to get off the train. He looked at the hole in the ceiling, but said nothing.

"So, this is your town?" Vilgax asked, looking around.

They were standing in the middle of a small town, with roughly 20 small buildings, and dozens more huts. There were a hundred people standing around the train, and, by effect, Vilgax and Maya.

"Greetings, citizens." Vilgax proclaimed. "I am Vilgax, conqueror of worlds. Perhaps you may have heard of me."

"Hey, guys." Maya waved, nervously. "Look who I found?"

"Maya, sweetie." An old man in grey robes approached her. "Why were you in the desert, conversing with a warlord? What happened to him?"

"He's _not_ a warlord, grandpa." Maya scoffed. "Not even close."

"Maya, look at him. He has just survived a close encounter with death. Perhaps Vilgax survived. The legends are only legends."

Maya looked at Vilgax, and sighed. "Perhaps you are." She sighed.

"And Maya." Vilgax said, kneeling down to her level. "You have saved my life, and getting me to admit such a thing is certainly no small feat."

Maya looked at him, suddenly awestruck. "You ARE him. I didn't see it before, but you are wise, aren't you?"

"I suppose that's a valid way to classify me. If you are still open, I could use a new crew when I take flight to Earth."

Maya smiled. "I'd be honored to join you, sir."

"And we'd be honored to allow her to." Her grandpa added.

"Very well." Vilgax cracked a slight smile. "Now, which way to the nearest radio station?"

()

"Thanks for helping me out with the farm work." Maya said, pulling a vegetable out from the soil. "I appreciate it."

"it's nothing." Vilgax said, lifting a bay of hale into a wooden cart. "After all, if I am going to fight in legendary battles again, I have to be able to at least do this meager task."

"I never thought I'd see the day where the legendary Vilgax welcomed me into his crew." Maya said. "i also never thought I'd see the day he helped me with pulling crops."

"Today is full of surprises, I take it?"

Maya snickered. "You should try to make jokes more often. You're not too bad at it."

"Do you think your parents will miss you?"

"Yeah, but I don't think they could be happier, knowing where I'll be."

"I understand the feeling, the conflict between your future, and the loved ones of the past."

"You do?" Maya asked, surprised.

"Yes. Contrary to what may very well be popular belief around here, I did actually used to have a family. Namely, a brother."

"What happened to them?" Maya asked, quietly.

"Depends." Vilgax sighed. "But they all taught me something. If not for my brother, I don't know what would have happened to me. He taught me that no matter the horrors of war, you still need to hold on to who you really are."

"I've heard a story like that." Maya remarked. "A lot of people think those who win wars repress their feelings. But I guess that isn't healthy, huh?"

"Not for me, though I know that different methods work for different people."

A ship soared overhead, and circled back into the center of the village, and several Chimera soldiers exited the ship's drop door. They waved to Vilgax, before they all became confused. Vilgax motioned to Maya, who followed him to the ship.

"Now would be the ideal time to say goodbyes." Vilgax said to her.

"No worries. I already did."

"Vilgax?! Why were you doing labor? Did these savages enslave you!?"

"Hardly." Vilgax said. "My surgery went awry. I was merely keeping myself in shape."

"Ah. I see." The soldier coughed awkwardly. "Well... Please, finish up."

"On the contrary, I'd like to exit this planet as quickly as possible."

"Okay... Oh, and who is this?"

"This is the first member of my new crew."

"Maya Anthraxx." She said, holding out her hand.

"Well, alright." Another soldier said, impressed. "So, where are you looking to travel, Master?"

"Vilgaxia, Preferably. I'll sort out everything after that." He looked to Maya, and the two nodded to each other. "Also, I'd like a room set up for her on Vilgaxia as well."

"Seriously?" Maya asked, surprised.

"Seriously." Vilgax replied, as the two entered the ship. "Now, go upstairs. The ship has a built-in library. You're going to need to read up on combat if you're going to be a soldier, you know."

Maya smiled, and climbed up the ladder, wordlessly. As she did, Vilgax sat down on the ship's bench, and smiled, as well. He would never admit it, but he enjoyed Maya's company. He was happy he'd met her. Honestly, he was just happy he'd survived all of this. He closed his eyes, and fell asleep.


	18. R5: Straining

One windy afternoon, in a small store, a man ran behind the building, holding a large bag of various items. He thumbed in a combination of numbers on the keypad, and it opened, allowing him to enter the store.

"Finally." He said to himself. "Now _this _oughta make a profit."

He stocked everything from the bag onto the various store shelves, before attaching price tags to each object, and standing back, grinning at his handiwork.

"This oughta attract quite a few customers."

As he exited the store, and locked the door behind him, the windows began to subtly glow a strange, purple color, and emitting an odd noise, before stopping as the shopkeeper turned back. He shrugged, and walked away, whistling to himself, and twirling the keys on his index finger.

()

Kate's fell backwards onto the carpeted floor, wearing a blindfold. She shouted in pain, and scrambled to her feet, before pulling the blindfold off, and angrily glaring at Matheo, who was looking at her, trying not laugh.

"Hey, earth to Slo-Mo!" She said, raising her voice. "The whole point of trust falls is that you're supposed to _catch_ the person who's trusting you!"

"Yeah, well." Matheo rolled his eyes, and shrugged. "I thought it'd be funny if you were put in your place."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Kate asked, cracking her knuckles.

"Whatever you want it to mean, sweetheart." Matheo replied through gritted teeth.

"Guys." Todd said, stepping between them. "This is supposed to be a _team_ exercise. You're supposed to _not_ want to kill each other by the end of it, preferably."

"With all due respect, fearless leader." Kate replied. "I think that this team has a serious problem. I'll give you a hint. It starts with an 'M,' and rhymes with 'Schmatheo.' "

"Alright, that's it!" Matheo shouted, and jumped at her.

Kate calmly stepped out of the way, causing Matheo to slam his head into the wall of the basement, and began yelling.

"I'm going outside." Kate said, annoyed. "I need some non-boy shenanigans in my life."

"Kate!" Todd called after her, as she walked up the stairs.

"God, I really can't stand her." Matheo muttered, rubbing his head. "Why doesn't she show me more respect?"

"Probably because she _doesn't_ actually respect you, if I had to guess."

"And, just like that, I regret asking you." Matheo said, standing up, and leaning against the wall.

"Hey, you asked."

"Well, forget I asked."

"Look, whether you like it or not, we're a team at the end of the day, and the only way we're gonna survive... Each other, is if we start by trying to cut each other-"

"... Cut each other some slack." Matheo interrupted. "I get it. It's the same speech you give every time. I know."

"Hey, if it ain't broke." Todd shrugged.

"Whatever."

"Just... Try to understand that Kate has her own life, too, okay? She doesn't exist only to annoy you, you know."

"Yeah, she'll also get married, too."

"Okay, that's kind of-"

"Don't care." Matheo said, shoving Todd out of the way, and walking up the stairs. "It's true, like all girls."

Todd put his hands to his forehead, and rubbed it in circles. He took a deep breath in, and breathed out. What would... What would someone who's good at leading others do?

"Well that's easy." Todd said to himself, sitting on a plastic chair, and looking out the window-well. "They'd probably break down the team-dynamic, find the source of the conflict, and address it."

Exactly. And the most obvious, and problematic, source of conflict was between Kate and Matheo. The only way the Katachi League was going to continue was if Todd found some way to patch up their relationship... But how?

()

"What... Is this?" Kate asked, as she and Matheo were led by Todd outside of the city, and off the side of the road, in a large, grassy field.

"You and Matheo are teammates." Todd asserted, turning to them, his arms crossed behind his back. "But you don't act like it. You 2 act like an old married couple. One of the bad ones. That can't afford a divorce, and gave birth to a couple of drug-"

"Message received." Matheo said. "But, again, WHY are we out here?"

"The million-dollar question." Todd grinned. "You guys have a ton of unresolved issues with one another, so obviously, the only way to resolve them, is to fight it out, away from the city!"

"Fight it _out_?" Matheo asked, disgusted. "With HER? No way, she's not worth the-"

Matheo was suddenly picked up, and thrown a good 15 feet away, by Kate, who had mutated her arms into HandyMan's. She chuckled, as he landed on his stomach, and yelled, before pulling a small cactus thorn out of his fingertips.

"Well, I object." Kate smiled. "I'd LOVE to fight you."

"Finally." Todd said, quietly. "Through combat, the twins will realize ach others different fighting styles, and become respectful and loving towards each other! This is perfect!"

"Fine, Katie-poo." Matheo grimaced, activating his Optitrix, and turning it to the hologram of RexGuy. "You'd better be ready for what happens when you call down the THUNDER!"

Matheo slammed the core down, and was dissolved in a bright explosion of red light.

()

Green and grey rocks began to from along Matheo's arm, as well as his entire body. A blue, energy-like hand was extruded from his arms, and blue feet from his legs. Various blue, vein-like markings littered the rest of his body as well. Three glowing spikes appeared on his shoulders, as well. Finally, a hardened head, with blue eyes, and a large mouth grew from his body. The Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, and he grinned.

()

"REXGUY!" He yelled, before looking at himself. "Wait."

That was all he could say, before Kate ran at him, and mutated her arms into HeatBlast's, and began shooting fireballs at him.

"Hold on, new alie-! HEY!" Matheo yelled, as Kate round house kicked his head, and pushed off his stomach, backflipping in the air, and landing on the ground, a light sweat on her forehead.

"Well, you'd better figure it out quick."

"Can do!" Matheo said, putting his hand up, and creating a large, blue, glowing boomerang-like structure from his hand.

He looked at it for a second, before shaking his head, and throwing it at her. Kate's arms transformed into PlugN'Play's, and absorbed the energy, before shooting it back at Matheo, though it had no effect.

"Great." Matheo said, staring at her. "Guess we've reached a stalemate."

"Guess so." Kate shrugged. "What's your next move, genius?"

"Calling it quits." Matheo sighed, and put his hands up. "Fighting you was kind of boring anyway."

"I'm sure it was." Kate said, rolling her eyes. "Wanna call a truce?"

"Hell no." Matheo said, and ran at her, grabbing her by the stomach, and slamming her into the ground. "I'm only getting started!"

"Me too, then!" Kate shot back, mutating her arms into Refractor's, and blocking Matheo's next attack, before a series of diamond-like, cone-esque structures shot out of the ground, launching him into the air.

Matheo re-angled himself in the air, covering his feet in large, electric boot-like structures, before crashing into the ground below, and creating a large shockwave around him, tearing apart the terrain, blowing it into the air in small chunks of dirt, as well as a large cloud of dust. Matheo grinned, and approached the cloud, only for two long, white, slender limbs to shoot out of it, and wrap around his head, then the next thing he saw was the bottom of a shoe.

"Gotcha!" Kate shouted, repelling her foot off of his face, and leapfrogging over him.

"You certainly are a slippery little piece of work!" Matheo growled, angrily.

"Well, you kind of took the whole 'big-and-dumb' routine." Kate replied sassily.

"Well, I have to give you a chance when it comes to team dynamics, don't I?"

"Less talking!" Kate yelled disappearing back into the dust, before blowing out of it, as a fully-formed female HeatBlast. "I'm just startin' to enjoy this!"

Matheo shot out a large electric beam at Kate, who surrounded herself in a fiery pillar, which wrapped around, and moved behind Matheo, before slamming into him, exploding, and sky-rocketing him out of the whole, and into a nearby parking lot.

"Uh, wait." Todd interjected, his eyes widening. "Could you just stay in the-?"

"Stay out of this, innocent bystander!" Kate yelled, leaping out of the whole, mostly human, aside from her legs, which had mutated into GoldenGuy's, as well as his hoverboard. "I've got this!"

"Wait, come back!" Todd shouted after them, as Kate flew after Matheo. "... Cripes."

Kate activated her Omni-Kix suit, becoming Yunai, and mutated her arms into HandyMan's, easily lifting a car above her head, and chucking it at Matheo, who caught it, and tore the car in half, before slipping the halves on his hands, as if they were boxing gloves. He slammed the halves together, a couple times, glaring at her all the while.

"You really think that's effective, don't you?" Yunai sighed, staring at Matheo.

"Well, why don't we watch the data in action!?" Matheo yelled, and ran at Kate, swinging at her.

Yunai grabbed both of the car gloves with her mutated arms, and ripped them off of Matheo, chucking them behind her into the road.

"Fine." Matheo said, stone-cold. "You asked for it."

Matheo slapped his Omnitrix symbol, and a red glowing separation emerged from the symbol, and covered his entire body, causing it to change shape.

()

The electricity within him changed color, becoming purely red, and two large, steel canisters appeared from his back. As well as that, the moss on his stone body disappeared, too. Lastly, steel plating appeared sparsely on his calves, knees, arms, shoulders, and chest. His Omnitrix symbol grew 4 metal spikes, resembling an 'X.'

()

"OPTIMIZED... SHOCKGUY!" ShockGuy yelled. "Finally got it!"

"Do I even want to know what his deal is, or are just gonna keep fighting?" Yunai asked, pointing at him.

"I don't actually know what his deal is." Optimized ShockGuy admitted. "But we're about to find out, aren't we?"

"I'll take that as a 'keep fighting,' then." Yunai sighed.

"AFFIRMATIVE!" Optimized ShockGuy cried in response, cracking his knuckles, before he was stopped.

"Yunai, Besu." Hyu said, walking in between them, and looking separately at the two. "You guys are done."

"But, dude." Yunai said. "I thought we were supposed to be fighting each other...?"

"In the field, as a way for you two to bond, not-"

"BOND?!" Optimized ShockGuy and Yunai both shouted in disbelief.

"With her?" Optimized ShockGuy stuck his nose up in disgust. "Please! I wouldn't care if she keeled over right here!"

"Right back at you!" Yunai said, shaking her head.

"Guys..." Hyu attempted to interject.

"No!" Optimized ShockGuy interrupted, tapping is Omnitrix symbol, and de-transforming to Besu. "I've had enough! I REFUSE to work with you guys! And don't even get me started on YOU."

He pointed at Yunai, glaring at her, before groaning, and walking past her, hitting her shoulder. Yunai spun around, and stared at him as he walked away.

"Come on, man!" She yelled after him. "Let's not do this, _again_!"

Besu stopped, and turned around, staring her dead in the eyes. "Don't try to figure me out. I've had _enough_ of people thinking they know me."

Nobody said a word.

"You know what?" Besu broke the silence. "I quit. I'm done. Bye."

"Wait, what?!" Hyu shouted, running after him, and grabbing Besu's shoulder. "Hold on! You can't quit!"

"I just did." Besu shoved Hyu off of him. "Later."

"What's _his_ problem?" Yunai asked, walking next to Hyu, crossing her arms.

Hyu didn't reply. He didn't know what to say. After a few seconds, he turned around, and left for the house.

()

"To be fair, it was kind of screwed up for you to try and get us to bond, behind our backs, dude." Kate said, sitting on a beanbag.

"It's not like that." Todd said, grumpily, laying on the couch, dramtically. "I just can't take you two always being at each other's throats."

"He's Matheo. He's at _everyone's_ throats."

"Still. I can't believe he actually quit."

"I can't believe it took him this long."

"Would you cut it out?" Todd asked, blankly. "He was a part of our team, you know."

"I always wondered what was wrong with us."

"It takes 2 to tango, you know." Todd rolled over, and pulled his cheeks down with his fingers. "Where is he, anyway? I haven't seen him since... Y'know."

Kate shrugged. "I dunno. Probably just cooling off, or whatever. I know him. When he gets back, he'll be right as rain."

Todd sighed. "I hope so."

"Let's talk about something else." Kate changed the subject. "Now that we're a duo, maybe we should-"

"I'm going to my room." Todd interrupted, standing up.

"Uh... Okay. We'll put a pin in that?"

"Yeah."

()

Matheo shoved his hands in his pockets, and grumbled angrily to himself as he walked down the crowded downtown streets. A large, stump man shoved past him, and continued on. Matheo sputtered in disbelief for a moment, before sighing, and turning back, before he went back to walking. He walked along the street, before turning a corner, and seeing a large, black, gothic building, with giant, red, neon letters, reading: 'Tattoos.'

"Bingo." He said to himself.

Matheo walked up the steps, and opened the double-doors, entering the building. The building was only manned by a single person. He had bleached hair, and was tattooing a picture of a heart, with the name 'Marla' in it, on a skinny man wearing a leather jacket. He was humming a tune before he told Matheo to wait in line with everyone else, without looking up. Matheo obliged, and sat down on a chair, with a few other people next to him. He was sitting next to a large man, who only looked at him, before snorting, and looking back at the magazine.

"You talking to me?" Matheo asked him.

"Not talking." The man replied.

"Yeah, well, I'm not into your whole 'gruff' thing." Matheo said, stuck-up.

"I don't care."

"You should."

"Whatever."

"Would you two quiet down?!" The tattoo artist shouted at them, before he saw Matheo, and smirked.

"Hey, Mutt." Matheo said, waving at him.

"Hey." Mutt replied.

()

"I just don't get it, Fluffy." Todd said, laying backwards on his bed, as Fluffy laid curled up next to him. "I thought I was supposed to be GOOD at leading. I guess not."

Fluffy picked his head up, only to turn it towards Todd's eyes, and plopped his head on his chest, staring at him. Tod smiled, and stroked his head. Fluffy yawned, and reverted to his original position.

"Yeah." Todd sighed, before he slowly got up, and sat in a cross-legged position. "Hey, you know what'll perk us up? What if we went for a... _walk_?"

Fluffy perked up, and began wagging his tail excitedly. Todd chuckled, and grabbed a red leash from his dresser. He connected it to Fluffy's collar, and opening the door to his room, before running down the stairs, with Fluffy in tow.

"Hey, Kate!" Todd said quickly, as they passed her. "I'm taking Fluffy for a walk, you're in charge!"

"Awesome!" Kate yelled, before she stopped. "Wait... Who am I supposed to be in charge of?"

She didn't receive an answer, as Todd was already out the door. Kate slumped down in her beanbag, and sighed, before turning on her phone, and scrolling through her inbox.

()

"So what do you need?" Mutt said, throwing his legs on his desk, and reclining in his chair. "Make it quick. New customers could walk in any moment."

"I wanna take you up on your offer." Matheo replied, leaning forwards. "I wanna go with you."

"No, you don't." Mutt said. "I know you, dude. You'll change your mind in a couple days."

"Not this time." Matheo said, before pointing to his Optitrix. "If you want proof, I'm willing to let you remove this thing."

Mutt opened his mouth, obviously confused, but closed it.

"I'm willing to leave the Katachi League." Matheo insisted.

"NO WAY." Mutt said, floored. "That's... That's _real_? How'd you-?"

"Long story." Matheo replied. "You can have it if you want."

"You'd give that up?"

"I... I think so. When I first got this thing, it was kind of awesome. I'll admit that. But I'm sick of this whole 'being a hero' thing now. There's too many rules, too much stuff. I quit. And now, I don't ever wanna step foot in my own home again. I want to go with you, on your fabled trip. You know, like... To Canada, or wherever."

"That's... That's a lot. THIS is a lot."

"I know. But you're my friend, Mutt. Please."

Mutt looked down to the floor, uncomfortably. He didn't know what to say. But Matheo was right. They were good friends. He looked back to his friend, and cracked a slight smile, before nodding, Much to Matheo's delight.

()

Todd and Fluffy walked through the busy city streets, and looking around at the skyscrapers around them. They'd been out for about 40 minutes by now, and Todd was considering turning around at this point. That was, until Fluffy began barking at a store that was a few blocks away. Todd shrugged, and walked over in the direction Fluffy was getting agitated. He picked his dog up, and crossed the road, before walking over, since Fluffy was finally starting to calm down.

"Wonder what's got you all riled up?" Todd asked. "I'll bet it's just a butterfly."

As they stood outside the store, Fluffy began sniffing the air around him, then began straining, trying to get into the store.

"Woah!" Todd said, trying to calm him down. "The store? What would you want in there?"

The door was suddenly swung open, and a stout man in a tan shirt, with a oil-stained apron, striped pants, and a handlebar moustache looked at both Todd and Fluffy, before he grinned.

"Ah, a pet owner!" He said, excitedly. "I have several doggy-sized products, just for you! … Er... He already went, right?"

"Oh, uh... He already... He's good." Todd replied, slowly. "But, I don't think I could-"

"Please, please!" The shopkeeper said, motioning for Todd to follow him.

Todd shrugged, and entered the shop. It was filled with various knick-knacks, such as ceremonial masks, amulets, several rusted weapons, and even what appeared to be a worn anchor.

"What is all this stuff?" Todd asked, impressed. "I've never even heard of half these things... Is that a bone?"

"Supposedly it used to belong to a pterodactyl, but I'd take that with a grain of salt... Looks more like a wolf."

"Wicked."

"So, what are you looking to buy? … Or do you not have money?"

"I have 7 bucks." Todd said, but I don't think that's enough for-"

"Son, you can buy anything in here with money, it just depends on how much."

"I... See." Todd said, nodding. "So, what can I- Huh?"

He was interrupted, as Fluffy began growling, and pulling Todd towards a shelf next to him, filled with novels.

"Ah. Your dog has a taste for the classics." The man said. "Fortunately, I think I know just the book for you."

"You do?" Todd asked, confused.

"Yep." He walked over to the bookshelf, and pulled out a small book, with a series of yellow shapes on the cover, and dusted it off, before handing it to Todd. "Like I said, doggy-sized. I'l bet having him read this would make for a cut Social Media."

"Is this what you want, Fluff?" Todd asked, and held the book close to Fluffy, who began pawing at it, excitedly wagging his tail as well. "Well, okay. If it makes him happy, I guess. We'll take it."

"Excellent choice." The man said, before typing in something into the cash register, before he gasped in shock. "Oh, my. It appears that your product costs 14 dollars! Whatever will we do?!"

"Oh." Todd said. "I guess that's that, then. Uh... See-"

"Well, wait just a second!" The man said, appearing behind Todd, startling him. "Since this is your first time, I think we could work something out. How about a... 50% beginner's discount?"

"Get out." Todd said, in disbelief. "For real?"

"Absolutely, my friend... Uh, no refunds, though."

()

"Matheo, I just think you should know one thing." Mutt said, cautiously, as they left the parlor, and walked down the crowded streets.

"Oh?" Matheo asked, curiously. "And that is?"

"I had to make a couple of... Less than desirable decisions in order to get this whole thing off the ground."

"What do you mean, I thought it was just you, me, Junior, and Legladon."

"Case in point. We can't use Legladon. He's clearly unstable, and very volatile. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

"Okay, but-"

"And Junior's dipped out. He found a family here. I can't ask him away from that, just to go on some joyride."

"That means I'm the planner, and you're the pilot... I guess that wouldn't make such a good team, huh?"

"You got that right."

"Ugh... Fine, then who'd you get?"

"Uh..." Was all Mutt said, before he was interrupted by his phone ringing. "Yeah? What's up man?"

"Who's that?" Matheo asked, slightly concerned. "One of your connections?"

Mutt put his index finger in Matheo's face, and listened to who was calling him. He did, however, switch the phone to speaker.

"-Did you just do?" The voice asked, gruff, and hoarse. "Did you just put me on speaker?"

"Yeah. Carson, somebody else just joined the crew. Matheo."

"CARSON?!" Matheo shouted, jumping backwards. "Mutt, what the hell?!"

"Matheo?" Carson asked, annoyed. "I must concur with your previous statement."

"Guys, calm down, I-" Mutt began.

"NO." Matheo interrupted, and got in Mutt's face. "You know what he did. He almost got us all killed. He's totally screwed in the head. You KNOW that."

"I _know_ that I need help with this. He was the only guy willing to help. He's changed since then, you know."

"Bullcrap. He's still the same old Carson. I'm out."

"Out?!" Mutt cried, and grabbed Matheo's arm. "You can't be serious."

"I couldn't care less. I'm sure you can find a replacement." Carson said, dismissively.

"Come on." Mutt said, pleadingly. "You don't wanna live in this boring town your whole life, do you?"

"I-"

"I don't care." Carson sighed, turning off the communications system. "Join if you want, Matheo. I'm willing to give you a second chance. If you don't, I don't care. Mutt, meet me at the warehouse in 30. Bring your friend if he decides to join."

The call ended. Mutt put the phone back in his pocket, and looked at Matheo, unsure of what to say.

"... I'll join." Matheo said, as if every syllable was a shot to his arm. "Cautiously."

"Great." Mutt said, smiling. "I knew you would."

()

"Hey, Kate!" Todd announced, walking through the front door, along with Fluffy. "You'll never guess what I picked up!"

" 'Picked up?' " Kate asked, suspiciously. "What did you pick up? Dog turds?"

"Nope. Look!" Todd grinned, showing her the small book he'd purchased. "Isn't it just precious?"

"Wha-?"

"I was thinking it could make a cute pic, for like, the fridge, or something, for Fluffy to look like he's reading it!"

"Lemme see that book." Kate said, snatching it from him, and opening it to a random page, and squinting at it. "What IS this stuff?"

"I dunno. But Fluffy really wanted it, and-"

"We can't let Fluffy use this as his own personal chew toy. Whatever this book is, it's pretty... Weird. Like some kind of strangeness about it, you know?"

"No." Todd said, cocking his head to the side, curiously.

Kate looked to her side, and saw Fluffy supporting himself with his two front paws against her knee, staring anxiously at the book, trying to lean over and bite it. Kate cocked her eyebrow.

"... Huh. You weren't kidding. Maybe it has a beef stick in here, or- HEY!"

Kate was cut off, by Fluffy leaping onto her legs, and snatching the book with his teeth, before running up the stairs, and under Todd's bed. Kate and Todd both looked at each other.

"Well, there goes selling it." Kate sighed.

()

"We're here, Carson." Mutt said, binging Matheo through the huge, steel doors. "Hello?"

"Hey, I joined, idiot!" Matheo yelled into the dark. "Let's get this over with!"

The next thing they knew, two glowing orbs emerged from the ground, and swallowed them, levitating them above the ground. Mutt fell against the transparent bottom, grunting in pain. Matheo looked around in confusion.

"What is this?!" Mutt yelled. "Some kinda trap."

"Precisely." Matheo sighed, shaking his head. "I should have known."

"Indeed, you should have." They heard Carson say, stepping out of the shadows, and smirking at them. "I was expecting Mutt to fall for it, but the infamous child genius, Matheo? Well, that's certainly an... _Unintended_ surprise. Though, a pleasant one, to be sure."

"Let us out of here, this instant, or ELSE." Matheo growled.

"Or else he'll use his Optitrix to beat you up!" Mutt said, butting in.

"Oh, That's real?" Carson asked, curious. "Intriguing."

"MUTT!" Matheo shouted, turning to him. "What are you DOING?"

"I was trying to scare him, obviously."

"Oh, yeah, I'm very scared." Carson said, before he held up a remote. "Try any shapeshifting, and I'll both shrink the orb, and electrify it. It's a very painful demise."

"Nice going." Matheo sighed to himself, before looking at his Optitrix, and suddenly perking up. "Actually, I may just have an idea."

()

"Mo hasn't come home yet." Todd said to himself, annoyed.

"Cool. I could do without him for a while."

"Kate!" Todd groaned. "Come on, this is serious."

"Well, he's not." Kate shrugged. "He'll be back in a couple hours, and probably whining about how we didn't go looking for him. This isn't his first time running away."

"But not for this long."

Suddenly there was large blast of purple static electricity from Todd's room, and the twins both jumped back. Suddenly, a large drawer was flung at them, and they dived to the ground, narrowly avoiding it.

"I get the feeling that Fluffy's got something to do with this!" Todd shouted, scrambling to his feet.

"You think!?" Kate cried in response, motioning to the stairs.

The twins sprinted up the stairs, narrowly missing a book that was chucked at Todd's head. When they got to the door, they saw a very scared, and extremely loud Fluffy, surrounded by a purple mist, floating in the middle of the room, along with pretty much everything that wasn't a bed or dresser. His throat was bubbling, and it seemed to be almost opening in some spots.

"Oh no!" Todd yelled, and tried to run to Fluffy, but was forced back by a strange force.

"We can't get in!" Kate yelled.

"We have to!" Todd looked back to Fluffy who was doing his best to not look at the twins. "I'm not gonna let him die!"

Todd activated his Splicatrix, and slammed the core down, and transforming into:

"SPIDERMONKEY!" He yelled, before shooting a web at his wall, and grabbing onto it for dear life. "Kate, throw me in!"

"If you say so." Kate said, mutating her arms into HandyMan's, before picking up SpiderMonkey, and throwing him into his room.

SpiderMonkey clutched onto the wall, and looked to Fluffy, who was now howling in pain. SpiderMonkey crawled down onto the ground, under Fluffy, before standing up, and hugging him tightly.

"It's gonna be okay little guy!" He yelled. "I've got you!"

As soon as he said these words, the room's contents began to stop moving, before falling to the ground, Fluffy finally began to stop crying, and his throat was instantly back to normal. SpiderMonkey carried Fluffy back out of the room, and put him on the ground, as he was shaking.

"I hope he's gonna be alright." Kate said, before she turned back to the room. "I wonder what happened in there... Do you think it was that book?"

"Definitely." SpiderMonkey replied, returning to human form. "What do we do with it?"

"Nothing." They heard a high-pitched voice say.

The twins both instantly looked at Fluffy, who was still regaining his balance. "Guys, please don't destroy the book. For once, just listen to me."

"GAH!" Kate yelped, jumping backwards. "What the-?!"

"Fluffy?" Todd asked, kneeling down, and petting him. "Is that you?"

"Are you talking to me?" Fluffy asked, looking up at Todd.

"Uh... Yeah. This kind of weird."

"No way." Fluffy looked down at the ground for a few seconds. "I knew you guys could hear me!"

"Uh, nope." Kate said. "This is our first time. That book must have done something to you."

"That much is obvious."

Todd's Splicatrix started to beep, before it let him know that he had a new message from Matheo.

"Guys, Matheo's calling us." Todd said to them. "I think he needs our help."

"I'll help!" Fluffy said, wagging his tail. "I'll go get the SpellBook!"

"Wait, 'spell book?' " Todd asked. "That's what that book does?"

"Yep." Fluffy said, nodding. "I'm pretty good with it."

"But how are you supposed to... Y'know... Read it?" Kate asked.

"I learned a levitation spell, as I think I demonstrated earlier." Fluffy said, before running out of the room with the book in his mouth.

"Okay, then." Kate said, before cracking her knuckles. "Well, can't get any weirder than this."

"Let's do this." Todd said, and the three ran out of the house.

()

"So, what's the problem with this picture?" Carson asked, sitting in a spinning chair. "I'll tell you. It's that you won't get over here, already!"

Carson slammed down the phone, and groaned in anger. Matheo and Mutt didn't respond. Carson only looked at them, before sitting down.

"When are they gonna get over here?" Matheo asked to himself, quietly.

Suddenly, there was a large flash of blue light outside the building, causing the light to flood the room. Hyu, as SillyClone, jumped through the window, and landed behind the orbs, followed by both Yunai and Fluffy.

"What the eff is the DOG doing here?!" Mo yelled, confused.

"The name's Fluffy!" Fluffy replied, jumping from Yunai's arms, before levitating the SpellBook in front of him. "Reploso!"

A gush of glowing, purple wind was created around him, causing the stunned Carson to be swept off his feet, and thrown into the desk behind him. Yunai and Hyu unplugged the machines generating the fields, and Mutt and Matheo fell to the ground.

"Well, it's about time!" Matheo yelled, activating his Optitrix.

"I guess we're never leaving, huh?" Mutt asked, sighing.

"Oh, hi." Yunai said, sticking her hand out. "My name's Yunai. Nice to meet you."

"Hey." Mutt said, gloomy.

"What do you mean, 'leaving?' " SillyClone asked.

"Matheo said he and I would be leaving the US, and go to Canada. He promised."

"You did?" Yunai asked. "Why?"

"Guys, who cares?!" Matheo yelled. "It's time to kick this guy's butt!"

Before Matheo could do anything, Carson threw the desk at him, and breaking half over his body. Matheo fell to the ground, unconscious. SillyClone turned angrily back at Carson, and multiplied himself into several versions of himself. The SillyClones swiftly surrounded Carson, before running at him, and attempted to dogpile him, but Carson unsheathed a pistol, and shot a SillyClone in the chest.

"Gah!" The SillyClone yelled, before fizzling out of existence.

"NO! Twobie!" Another SillyClone cried.

The rest of the SillyClones held down Carson, and proceeded to beat him until he became unconscious. Once they were done, the remaining SillyClones merged back into one, and transformed back into Hyu. Fluffy walked over to Carson's body, and performed a memory erasing spell on him.

"In case he tries to come after you guys again." Fluffy explained once he was finished.

"I doubt that'll stop him for very long." Matheo said, groaning as he limped out of the pile of rubble he'd accidentally created. "Carson probably logged all of this crap. He's super paranoid."

"Well, hopefully it buys _some_ time." Yunai said, crossing her arms. "Now, Matheo, why were you trying to get out of here?"

"Because of Todd!" Matheo said, raising his voice, and pointing at him. "I can't believe he tried to pull something like that!"

"Hey, wait just a-" Hyu began, before Yunai interrupted him.

"I know. I'm disappointed in him too." Yunai explained sympathetically. "He was only trying to help, I know, but his methods were kinda... Sketchy."

"HEY!" Hyu protested.

"Huh." Matheo said. "I guess I overreacted, a little. I'm... Sorry, Yunai. I've been kind of a jerk to you, huh?"

"It's alright." Yunai said. "So, you wanna rejoin the team? This time, we can _both_ hate Todd, instead of each other?"

"I don't think this is the most healthy-"

"Sure." Matheo said, smirking. "I guess."

"Well, I'm glad this all worked out, enough..." Hyu sighed.

"Don't push it." Matheo said, annoyed. "Just cause I'm back, don't think things are all sunshine and lollipops around here."

With that, Matheo waved goodbye to Mutt, and left the building. Yunai shook her head, and left with him. Hyu put his head in his hands, and rubbed his forehead.

"This day's been too much." Hyu said to himself.


	19. R6: The Amalgamation!

Beneath the rubble of a demolished Military base off the coast of Downtown Denver, a few working Laboratories were being run by a few remaining employees, one of them being Dr. Aloysius Animo, one the Katachi League's oldest enemies. He was digging through the rubble of the collapsed roof, and pulled out a picture of an extremely similar-looking man. He sighed, somewhat melancholy.

"I thought I could have surpassed you." He said to himself. "Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be the next Dr. Animo. I changed my name, my appearance, everything, just to become a version of you that could prosper without that meddling fool, Ben Tennyson. And yet, now I must deal with even more foolish, little-"

"Sir!" One of the scientists called to him from outside the room. "You're gonna want to see this."

Animo sighed, and walked out of the room, dropping the picture, to reveal that it was dedicated to an Aloysius Animo Senior. He followed the eager scientist out of the office, and into a large, monitor filled room. There roughly dozens of fellow scientists, all furiously analyzing the data of a single drop of blood.

"What's so important?" Animo asked, impatiently. "You _do_ have a reason for calling me in here, yes?"

"Of course, sir. During your previous battle with those brats, the Unitrix actually spilled a few drops of artificial blood. It did not dry, nor did was it lost in the collapse. We have reason to believe that it may be somewhat indestructible."

"So?" Animo asked, uninterested. "You got some blood. Big deal."

"It's the Unitrix's blood, sir. It contains every single alien sample within her."

Animo suddenly became very interested. He spun around, and slapped both of his hands on the scientist's shoulders. "Oh, do tell."

()

"No, definitely not." Kate said, activating her Omni-Kix program.

"I'm having a hard enough time with these two! NO DEAL!" Matheo shouted, pulling out a large, black spear, with several dozen blue beads on it.

"Sorry, Fluffy." Todd said, stretching his arms. "We don't know how adept you are with magic. And, to be honest, you didn't really do all that much last time."

"But, I found this little gizmo that could attach my SpellBook to my collar, so I don't need to-" Fluffy began to protest, before Matheo interrupted him.

"Hey, is that my 'Grab-O-Tron 3000?!' " Matheo yelled, yanking it off his collar, and throwing it onto his workbench. "Why does everyone around here think it's okay to yank my gizmos! Make your own!"

"Actually, I made that for him, dude." Hyu said, crossing his arms. "As Grey Matter."

"Oh, okay." Besu groaned, and dropped it on the floor, before crushing it under his foot.

"Hey!" Yunai yelled, confused. "What the hell?!"

"I'm the only inventor in this house. If you need something, I invent it, capiche?!"

"You're not the one who decides that!" Hyu said, sternly.

"And you're not in charge of me, remember?" Besu shot back. "I'm in charge of _me_. You're lucky I even call myself part of this stupid team, you know."

"Keep telling yourself that." Hyu said, angrily. "In the meantime, at least _try_ to be pleasant, and... I don't know, _possible _for once!"

"Ladies, ladies." Yunai said, pushing them apart. "You're both pretty. Now break it up. That psycho's set the bank to blow any second now, so we don't have time for you guys to argue!"

"She's right." Hyu said. "Sorry, Fluff, but collar or no collar, this is a job for pros. Later."

"But-!" Fluffy protested, but it was too late, as the triplets had already jumped out the attic's window. "...Oh, man."

()

Before he hit the ground, Hyu slammed down his Splicatrix core, exploding into blue light.

()

Hyu's body shrunk down to a miniscule size, and four large, blue, transparent wings emerged from his back. His eyes became one, and blue as well. Hyu's body also became coated in a sleek metal layer, with black separations too. Lastly an Omnitrix symbol grew out of his chest, and he flew around in a small, glowing circle.

()

"HAXIE!" He shouted, before speeding off into the distance. Besu followed suit, and transformed into DogGuy, and tore off down the street. Lastly, Yunai fully mutated herself into a female version CannonBolt, and rolled swiftly after them. DogGuy jumped into a fire-escape, and effortlessly smashed through the railing, landing on the other building, and scaling to the top of it instantly.

"Time to get a little bit daring..." Haxie said to himself.

He then flew extremely low, looping around Yunai a couple times, before flying away, and soaring through a crowd of people, most of whom were either staring, or attempting to capture the Katachi League on their phones. He dodged their heads and faces, before finally arriving at the end of the crowd. Once he did, he flew into the air, before loop-de-looping around a few times in the air, then continuing to fly, the momentum of the maneuver giving him a noticeable boost in speed.

"We're getting close!" Yunai said to her twins through her Omni-Comm. "Get ready!"

"I was born ready!" Haxie shouted in reply.

DogGuy merely slobbered through the comms, not really offering anything to the conversation. Once they'd reached the bank, Yunai mutated herself back into a mostly human form, sans her back, which had grown large, veiny wings, which she used to fly up to the roof, following both DogGuy, and Haxie, who'd practically reached it by now. They looked in through the skylight, and saw that everyone in the bank had been tied up, and thrown to their knees, and were extremely panicked.

"Looks like we got here in time after all." Yunai said.

"Yeah, well, we wouldn't have had to cut it so close if _someone_ wasn't picking fights with pets." Haxie said, before DogGuy smacked him out of the air, smiling.

"Tone it down, Peanut Gallery." Yunai shushed, before she mutated her arms into RexGuy's, and smashed through the skylight, before motioning to the empty hole. "Ladies first."

"Don't mind if I do!" Haxie yelled, and flew down into the bank.

The criminals looked up in surprised, and before they could react, Haxie flew into the bomb's detonator, causing it to short-circuit.

"Gah!" The criminal yelped, and threw the detonator into the corner, before it short-circuited, and sent sparks everywhere.

Yunai landed behind the hostages, mutating her arm into Refractor's, and effortlessly cutting the ropes bonding their limbs together. As she did this, they each ran for the exit, before DogGuy jumped in front of them, growling furiously. The hostages all screamed in terror, before Yunai walked over to them, and explained the problem.

"What my speechless Colleague here means, is that these doors have some odd, dangerous element about them. Until we get it figured out, I suggest you go pop a squat on behind those benches over there, we good?"

The hostages hesitated, but looked back at the criminals, and nodded, before they dived behind the bank's benches. Meanwhile, Haxie emerged from the detonator, and slapped his Omnitrix symbol, and exploded into a blast of blue light, and morphing into:

"BLITZMOUTH!" He yelled, crashing down upon the ground below him, and grabbing the face of a goon in front of him, before flinging him through the front window, onto the street.

"Nice going, Baka!" Yunai yelled, motioning at the broken window. "You keep these guys occupied, while I make sure he doesn't escape!"

"Yeah, go Yunai!" A girl yelled, pumping her fists in the air, as Yunai vaulted through the hole after him.

BlitzMouth turned back to the crime scene, with all of it's perpetrators unconscious. "Uh... Who am I supposed to keep busy, again?"

()

Shortly after he was thrown on the pavement, the remaining goon scrambled to his feet, and dived into a black sports car, with another colleague waiting for him.

"Go, go, go!" He shouted, as he threw a look back at the bank, watching as Yunai landed outside of the bank, and stared directly at them. "Today, man!"

"You're not going anywhere." Yunai said under her breath, and her legs mutated into more spring-like, white, paper-esque limbs.

She leaped into the air, just as the car squealed against the pavement, and tore down the highway, ripping a chunk of the bumper out of a nearby tow-truck. Yunai morphed her arms into PaperCut's as well, and swiftly threw her arms at the car's spoiler, wrapping them around it. She yanked herself onto the trunk, and glared at the escapees.

"You idiot, she's here!" The passenger goon yelled, yanking a revolver out of the glove compartment, and pointed it at her. "Try to shake her!"

The car began swerving, causing Yunai to nearly fall off, but she regained her balance, and steadied herself. The passenger crook then fired the revolver at Yunai, only for her to reinforce her arm into a massive fist, which punched through the bullet, and forced the goon's head into the dashboard, leaving a smear of blood along it.

"Holy-!" The driving goon screamed. "Jake, are you alright!?"

Jake muttered in response, before Yunai grabbed both of them, and threw them from their seats, and onto the sidewalk. The car was pretty much out of control, and to make matters worse, it was heading down a steep incline, too. Yunai hopped into the driver's seat, and stomped her foot on the brake, causing the car to turn to it's side, before flipping over as well.

"Jeez!" She yelped, trying to regain control, but it was too late.

The car continued to collide, before flying into the side of a building, and exploding into a flurry of glass and twisted metal, and forcing Yunai's unconscious body into the alleyway behind it, lastly. A group of people began to gather around the accident, before a group of men in black tuxedoes forced their way through the crowd, and looked down upon her.

"Well, well." One of them said, crossing his arms. "Looks like this is gonna be easy."

"Just shut up, and get her in the wagon before she wakes up, Chris." The other said, hoisting her up by the shoulders.

"Hey!" A middle-aged man cried, shoving Chris a small bit. "What the hell? Whaddya want with this little super-girl?!"

In response, the other man dropped Yunai, and shot him in the stomach, causing the man to drop dead instantly. The crowd dispersed, and began screaming in fear.

"That always makes them more agreeable, huh, Nate?" Chris asked, chuckling.

"Just load her into the wagon, for god's sake."

()

Back at the house, Todd was studying a holographic display of Kate's position throughout the city, but there was no sign of Kate at all. He sighed, and deactivated the program in defeat. He was sitting in the living room, laying upside down on the couch, and had cleared out a bag of crisps. On the other end of the room, Fluffy and Matheo were having yet another disagreement.

"I'm serious, if you'd just lend me that attachment-" Fluffy tried to explain.

"Out of the question, dog!" Matheo interrupted, angrily.

"Try to see things from my point of view, Matheo! You guys are my family, my team! I just want to help my-"

"Family?!" Matheo repeated in disbelief. "Team?! We _bought_ you! You're not a member of the team, you're just a freak accident!"

"Well at least you guys _wanted _me!" Fluffy shot back.

The two both stared dead into each other's eyes, a clear hatred beginning to brew.

"I don't care what Todd, or Kate, or whoever says. You'll _never_ be a member of the Katachi League."

"Who said I wanted to work with _you_?!"

"Right back at 'ya!"

"ENOUGH!" Todd said, stepping in between them. "What is this?! What's all this negativity?!"

"Silence, mortal!" Matheo growled. "I have my dignity, my limits. I will never be caught dead working with that mongrel."

"Come on!" Fluffy protested.

"He's right, Mo." Todd said, putting his hand on Matheo's shoulder. "I know you're not over the moon for this idea, but-"

"No." Matheo said, slapping away Todd's hand. "I dunno why we're even still on this. I _said_ I won't work with him, and that's that!"

"You're not in charge, here." Todd reminded him. "Now he's a member whether you like it or not. That doesn't mean you gotta like him, but, come on, are you really gonna pretend like you enjoy anyone else on the team? Just give him a chance. Please."

"It's not like I can disappoint you." Fluffy chimed in. "Your expectations of me are below the ground."

"Fine." Matheo muttered. "None of _my_ friends ever get to join, but who cares?"

"Wait... What?" Todd called after him.

"Never mind. I'll, uh, work on that new 'Grab-O-Tron,' for you, OK, Fluff?"

"Uh, yeah!" Fluffy shouted, happily. "T-thanks!"

"Nyeh." Matheo mocked, quietly.

"You know, I think we got through to him." Todd said, smirking. "Remember this. It's kinda historic."

"You can say that again... Hey, uh, thanks for sticking with me that whole time."

"Oh, don't get me wrong." Todd said, kneeling down, and staring Fluffy in his eyes. "Hero work is no joke. If you're serious about this, you're gonna need training."

"In _real_ combat?!" Fluffy shouted, gleefully.

"No!" Todd cried, mortified. "I mean, like, fake combat. Practice."

"Aw, man." Fluffy sighed. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Last time was a rare case, and you were on, like, the back lines. If you're gonna be on the front lines, with the rest of us, you're gonna have to learn the ins and outs, y'know?"

"Ugh." Fluffy sighed, before looking back up at Todd. "Alright, alright, I get it. So... When do we start?"

()

Kate was hanging from the ceiling of a white, padded cell, in chains when she woke up. There was a large, probably one-way-mirror stretched out on the wall ahead of her, as wel as a large hook holding her to the ceiling.

"Where... Am I?" She asked, drowsily.

There was no answer, so Kate shook her head attempting to wake herself up. As she did this, the chain holding her swayed back and forth slightly, though it showed no signs of giving out. She sighed in discomfort, and tried to wiggle out of the chains, to no avail.

"Hey, what's going on!?" Kate yelled, still regaining no answer. "Somebody answer me!"

She tried to mutate her body, but an extreme shock painfully consumed her, and she screamed in agony. The electricity spread throughout the chain, as well, causing it to last a few extra seconds. She nearly passed out, but remained awake, barely. A voice rang out through the intercom a few seconds later:

"Subject has _just_ attempted to _transform_. _Electric punishment_ distributed." A few words were clearly recorded later than the rest of the sentence.

"... Electric... Punishment...?" Kate managed to get the words out, before the side of her neck became sore. "Agh... My neck... I feel like I just got a shot, or something..."

"A rather astute observation, child." Animo said, as a section from the wall opened in a door like fashion, and he entered the cell. "Yes, we have been extracting DNA from your... 'Database,' in order to study, and possibly utilize it."

"Animo!" Kate shouted. "So _you're_ behind this!"

"Yes, I am." Animo replied, impatiently."

"Get me out of here, right now, or else!"

"Unfortunately, I will do no such thing." Animo said, sighing. "Though I will admit that the chains are no longer necessary. As soon as I exit, I'll have them release you. How's that?"

"I mean, whatever you're planning with my DNA, you'd better cut it out, Skippy!"

"This conversation is over." Animo said, turning around and walking out of the room.

As the door closed behind him, he walked over to a scientist who was controlling various elements of the room, such as the temperature, electric intensity, and the inflation of the padding.

"Release her." Animo said, and the scientist obeyed, dropping Kate to the floor.

Animo left the scientist, and walked into the cell next door, which contained a large pedestal, with dozens of metal spikes, each curved to point back at itself. Several lime-green beams of light were being transmitted from the spikes into a large, green orb, pulsating in the middle of the pedestal, with millions of different alien limbs, faces, shoulders, abdomens, and every other body part the samples contained, emerging, and disappearing back into the orb, rapidly.

"Amazing." Animo said aloud. "It's made so much progress. It's an amalgamation of every single that little brat has ever wielded..."

"Energy levels are minimal." A scientist said, from above scaffolding.

"Of course it's minimal!" Animo replied, annoyed. "It's got no brain! It couldn't exceed the current levels, unless it can figure out how."

"Right. Just-" The scientist started, before two, large, green eyes emerged from the orb, with rectangular pupils, as well as a reptilian mouth.

"What's going on?!" Animo yelled, stumbling backwards.

"Apparently, one of the aliens had too much intelligence. It must have given the amalgamation a brain!" The scientist yelled, before a large, red muscular arm shot out of the blob, grabbing the scientist, and pulled him into itself, the scientist screaming all the while.

"What the-?!" Animo cried in confusion.

The amalgamation stared at him, and a long, blue, electricity covered tentacle emerged from the blob, and shot at him. Animo narrowly rolled out of the way, and scrambled to the door, barely managing to escape, and shut the door behind him.

"Pull the kill switch, NOW!" Animo shouted, panicking.

The scientist monitoring the room obeyed, and pulled the aptly labeled 'kill switch,' and the room began to glow a bright white. The wires hooked into the pedestal began to fray, hundreds of watts of electricity flying through them, directly into the amalgamation.

"Activate the thrusters!" Animo commanded. "This thing has to _die_!"

"But, sir, it'll-"

"If we don't kill this thing, it'll break through here and kill us! BURN IT!"

"Y-yes, sir." The scientist muttered, and pressed a large, red button.

8 grey rocket thrusters emerged from the walls of the cell, and the scientist aimed them to get as close as possible to the amalgamation. He breathed out, and pulled a blue switch, labeled 'ACTIVATE THRUSTER TESTING.' As he pulled it, the thrusters exploded flames into the amalgamation, as well as electrocuting it. The intense heat began to crack the windows, as the scientist and Animo gasped, sharply.

"GET DOWN!" Animo screamed, diving below the control panel, along with the scientist.

The glass exploded into the room, smacking into the back of the room, before falling to the floor. When the smoke cleared, the scientist and Animo both peeked up from their cover, meekly.

"Is it... Dead?" The scientist asked, trying to pick the right words.

In response, he was grabbed by his face, and pulled into the facility, whatever held him muffling his cries of pain.

"Nope." Animo said, ducking back down, shaken. "Definitely still there."

()

Todd, Fluffy, and Matheo were all lounging on the couch, watching a rerun of _Friends_, uneventfully.

"Where's Kate?" Fluffy asked, confused. "Isn't this her favorite show?"

"Probably out shopping with her friends, or something." Matheo yawned.

"The mall's closed today, dude." Todd informed him. "Probably due to Besu's recent mishap."

"Hey, that Hot Dog stand thing wasn't my fault." Matheo said, unfazed. "Besides it saved our butts."

"I wouldn't say that." Todd said, giving him a sideways glance.

"You've always got something to say, huh?" Matheo asked, eyes still glued to the TV.

"I think we should go look for her, just to make sure she's safe." Fluffy said.

"Fine." Todd said. "I'll load up the tracker, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work this time, either."

"Lemme know when that doesn't work." Matheo smirked.

Todd activated the tracking app on his Splicatrix, and to everyone's surprise, Kate was visible on the map, but she wasn't in the city, she was in:

"That base?!" Todd shouted. "What's she doing there?!"

"The museum?" Matheo's ears perked. "Didn't we level that place...?"

"I thought so too. They must have been interfering with her Unitrix's signal. We've gotta get over there, pronto!"

"You took the words right outta my mouth! Time to try out this new costume!" Fluffy shouted, leaping off of the couch, and landing on the floor gracefully.

"Costume?" Todd asked. "We didn't make you a costume."

"Maybe not." Fuffy said, sassily. "So I'll make my own! _Forjado_!"

As he uttered this incantation, a purple mist appeared around him, before disappearing seconds later. When it did, Fluffy was clothed in a black and violet spandex, with four boots on each of his paws. A Golden pair of goggles rested above his eyes, which were covered in a black and white mask. His snout stuck out, plainly. His ears and tail were both covered in black, and white lightning bolts were portrayed on the sides of his chest, and grey, metallic plates covered his shoulders and knees.

"You guys were doing a pseudo-Japanese thing with your names, right? Then just call me: 'Torrik!'Kinda like the word for 'Trickster!' "

"That's the coolest I've ever seen you look, uh, Torrik." Todd said, smiling, as he activated his Omni-Kixarmor. "And I take it you had a while to come up with that name, huh?"

"It's not bad, I guess." Matheo muttered, doing the same. "Now, let's go get our sister, huh, guys?"

"Right." Todd, now Hyu, agreed. "And this time, we're destroying that base once and for all!"

()

Meanwhile, Kate was still locked up in her cell, listening to the commotion in the other cell. The paint on the padding running throughout the room was beginning to become a sickly, rotten yellow.

"What's going on out there...?" Kate asked.

Suddenly, the remains of a charred, human skeleton were thrown through the wall, before breaking into dust against the wall on the opposite end of the cell. Kate gasped, before turning herself to the hole, and seeing the Amalgamation, which was rapidly gaining mass. The pedestal was beginning to creak from the pressure as well.

"What is that?!" Kate yelled, before she heard the chains begin to shake. "Uh-oh."

Kate looked up, just in time to see the hook that was holding her dislodge, and she fell to the ground. She hit the floor with a dampened impact. As she did, she looked up to see the hook about to hit her head. She gasped, and rolled out of the way, narrowly missing it as it tore through the ground, leaving a small crater.

"Whatever that thing is, it can't leave this place, that's for sure!" Kate said, grabbing the back of her neck, and tearing out a small grey cover, before crushing it with her fist.

"Unitrix transformation capabilities restored." The Unitrix said, after beeping.

Kate activated her Omni-Kix protocol, becoming Yunai. She dived through the window, and stood before the amalgamation, who turned towards her, it's large eyes fixated on her.

"Master user profile, Kate Harrison, identified." It said, as the pedestal finally collapsed under it'sweight. "Must absorb. Beginning merge process."

"Dream on!" Yunai called back, cracking her knuckles, and mutating her arms into DinoGuy's, before she ran at the blob, yelling.

()

"I think it's time to go." Animo said, watching Yunai's brawl with the amalgamation.

He stood up, and began attempting to sneak out of the room, before the door to the lab was covered in a purple glow, and torn off it's hinges, before being launched outside, down the hallway, landing elsewhere with an explosion of noise.

"Nice job, mutt." Besu said, before walking into the room, and staring Animo dead in the eyes. "Oh. You."

"The Katachi-League!" Animo said, relieved. "You've got to help me! I just-"

Besu grabbed Animo by his shoulders, and pushed him against the control panel, hard. "Where's Yunai?! What did you do to her?! Answer me!"

"Put him down, Hulk." Hyu sighed, brushing himself off as he Torrik walked into the room. "He's notgonna talk with a broken spine."

"B-b-broken spine?" Animo asked, horrified.

"It's a joke, egghead." Besu said.

"What is that?" Torrik asked, angling his paw to look like he was pointing to the amalgamation. "It looks like... Every alien at once...?"

"Yes!" Animo blurted out. "We stole your sister's DNA catalogue, and used it to experiment, but the holding chamber must have malfunctioned!"

"So what do we do?!" Besu yelled. "How do we take all 70 zillion of our aliens at once?!"

"I don't know!" Hyu said.

"We had emergency kill protocols employed, but they didn't leave a scratch!" Animo pleaded. "Please, just don't let it kill me!"

"After everything you've done to me, and _especially _Legladon..." Besu growled. "You want me to let you_live_? Is that right?"

"I... I..." Animo tried to articulate his response, but failed.

Besu narrowed his eyes, and grabbed Animo's neck, and swiftly started choking him.

"You're going to pay." Besu said, leaning his head forward. "And you're gonna feel every. Second. Of it."

"Dude, stop!" Hyu said, shoving Besu away, causing him to drop Animo, who slumped to the ground. "What the hell?!"

"He deserved it!"

"Just let him go!" Hyu said, motioning to the cell. "We've got bigger fish to fry!"

"I'm not done with you." Besu warned Animo, as he vaulted through the window.

()

Hyu, Torrik, and Besu stood in the cell, and saw Yunai who was still holding off the amalgamation. She transformed her entire body into a female HeatBlast, and leaped at the amalgamation, which grabbed her out of the air, and began to absorb her. Yunai shouted out, and raised her temperature to that of a star. This heat burned the tentacle, and the amalgamation screamed in pain.

"This is so weird!" Besu said, activating his Optitrix.

"We have to name this thing. 'Omni-Blob.' That's it I've spoken, end of story." Hyu said, and activated his Splicatrix, and began scrolling through his aliens.

"Aw, I wanted to name it 'Omni-Pile.' Is it too late to change it?" Torrik asked, pleadingly.

"Yes."

Besu and Hyu slammed down their Omni-cores, and transformed into DiamondGuy and PaperCut respectively.

"Hyu, now's not a good time to go with a lame guy! Turn into someone else, now!" DiamondGuy shouted, annoyed.

"I've got a plan." PaperCut said, dismissively. "Don't worry."

"Hey, you guys showed up!" Yunai yelled, jumping over to them. "Took you long enough!"

"Thank us anytime." DiamondGuy said, smugly.

"Hey, Hyu, why're you PaperCut? This is kind of a bad time for that."

"I guess it may look that way." PaperCut turned to Torrik. "Torrik, I need you to keep that thing stationary."

"Got it!" Torrik yelled, before taking out his SpellBook, and flipping through it using the Grab-O-Tron.

PaperCut turned back to his siblings. "I need you guys to keep that thing occupied, but when I give the signal, you've gotta get as far away as possible! Torrik, that goes for you too!"

"Okay..." DiamondGuy rolled his eyes. "Well, I've made do with worse plans."

"LOOK OUT!" Yunai shouted, and they dived out of the way as a gigantic, muscular, furry, black, orange, and white hand shot out of the Omni-Blob, and attempted to crush them.

"Here we go!" Torrik exclaimed, before he steadied himself. "_Stuitous_!"

As he said this, the Omni-Blob became frozen in place, but now began to try to rapidly attack the team, especially Torrik. The Omni-Blob created a large version of Refractors hand, which shot dozens of crystals at Torrik, narrowly being saved by Yunai jumping down, grabbing him, and jumping into the corner of the cell.

"You almost broke my concentration..." Torrik muttered, straining.

"I'll try not to do it again. BESU!" Yunai called, before pointing to Torrik. "I'll give him cover, okay?!"

"You do that." DiamondGuy called, before creating 5, thick, pointed limbs from the ground, which surrounded the Omni-Blob, and tried to stab it, to no effect. "Great, looks like pierce attacks are worthless."

"Keep going!" Yunai shouted back. "Turn into another alien if you have to!"

"Oh, I'm not done." DiamondGuy said. "Not even close.

()

PaperCut had taken to the rafters, and finally reached the middle of the room, above the Omni-Blob. He breathed out, and activated his Omni-Comm.

"Alright everyone, clear out. Yunai, Torrik, you're clear. Besu, you've gotta back up."

"No way!" Besu yelled back, transforming his hands into diamond hammers, and attempting to wale on the creature. "I'm gonna get this thing! Not you second-rate sidekicks!"

"Besu, come on!" Yuani groaned. "This isn't about glory, it's about survival!"

"I don't care!" Besu shouted, before the Omni-Blob grabbed his face, and threw him into the wall of the cell, causing his entire body to crack, violently. "GAH-AGGH!"

"MATHEO!" Yunai yelled, running over to him.

"That's is SO it!" PaperCut shouted, and jumped down, transforming himself into a large dome, barely enough to surround the Omni-Blob.

"What the?!" Yunai asked, looking at the battle.

The Omni-Blob punched through the side of the dome, but PaperCut regenerated swiftly. He began reinforcing the walls of the dome, outwards and inwards simultaneously. Torrik coughed from the strain of his previous spell, but regardless, he thumbed to another page, and found a spell that could further reinforce PaperCut's Dome.

"_Iodia_!" He called, and PaperCut's Body gained a large, glossy sheen.

"What did that do?" Yunai asked.

"Magician's secret." Torrik said, before collapsing on the floor, tired. "Man, Todd was right. This stuff can be straining.

PaperCut reached his inward limit, so continued expanding outwards, but now began shrinking in size, slowly becoming impenetrable, and reversing the Omni-Blob's frequent, desperate attacks.

"I can't believe this..." DiamondGuy muttered, as his Omnitrix symbol began to flash yellow. "I was shown up by a guy who's plan was to pop that thing like the world's most powerful zit."

PaperCut screamed in struggle, and finally managed to squeeze the life out of the Omni-Blob, causing it to disappear in a massive explosion. PaperCut could no longer continue downsizing, and so reverted back to his humanoid form, just as is Omnitrix symbol started beeping. He exploded in a flash of yellow, and became human again. Kate and Matheo dragged Todd out of the smoke, as he moaned in discomfort.

"That sucked." Todd said, smiling at them.

As he said these words, the laboratory began to shake, and dirt began to fall from the ceiling.

"What's happening?!" Fluffy cried.

"The facility's collapsing." Matheo filled him in. "That explosion must have been the cause... We've gotta go!"

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Todd nodded, and the triplets jumped through the window of the lab, to see that Animo had escaped. "Hey, where'd Dr. Crazy go?!"

"Who cares?!" Kate shouted. "We'll deal with him later!"

"If we survive!" Matheo corrected, as they all ran through the hallway.

"Come on!" Fluffy motioned down the hall. "There's an alternate way out! We'll have to take that!"

The team ran through the collapsing hallway, and ducked into a concrete tunnel, before crawling through. They turned around to see the entire facility completely collapse, as several explosions rang out elsewhere in what remained of the facility. The group all laughed, and high-fived each other.

"What did I tell ya?!" Todd asked, as they resumed crawling. "I told we'd level that place, and consider it leveled!"

"I'll be happy to never have to deal with those creeps again... Sans Animo." Kate laughed.

"And when we do find that creep, we'll-" Matheo started, before Todd interrupted him.

"We'll lock him up." Todd said, sternly. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"Well see about that." Matheo said to himself.

The team finally emerged from the tunnel, into the sunlight, forcing them to look away as their pupils dilated to adjust.

"Jeez, I was hoping it'd be night!" Todd sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"Ugh... So, Matheo." Fluffy sad, excitedly. "Did I prove I'm a good member of the team!?"

"You're a newbie." Matheo said, plainly. "I don't fall over myself over newbies."

"But, I did alright, right?"

Kate and Todd both looked at Matheo, who rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you didn't die, so... You didn't do _bad_..."

"YES!" Fluffy grinned, and spun around in circles. "I'M A HERO!"

"I think you just made his lil' doggy day." Kate smirked, nudging Matheo.

"Whatever. Can we go home now?"

"Sure, sure." Todd said, putting his hands up. "Just nice to see you show that you've actually got a heart every once and a while, y'know."

Matheo shook his head, annoyed. "Just, for once, please shut up."


End file.
